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28
Apr 2021
Inquiry launched after council officer 'massaged' A1 service station report
An inquiry has been launched after emails revealed a Harrogate council officer “massaged” a key report on now-approved plans for a controversial motorway service station on the A1(M) near Kirby Hill.
Emails seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service show that Barrie Gannon, former principal landscape architect at Harrogate Borough Council, made changes to a landscape report in 2019 when the council’s planning department went against three previous refusals to recommend approval.
Mr Gannon said he hoped the changes would make the report “read better” – although it is not yet known what was amended.
What is clear though are the report’s conclusions. It said the landscape impact of the service station was “not substantive” in what campaigners have described as a “complete U-turn” from a previous council assessment, which warned it would cause “significant harm”.
The revelations have sparked questions over why a change of stance was taken, as well as concerns over impartiality within the planning department.
Gareth Owens, chair of Kirby Hill Residents Against Motorway Services, said:
The proposals put forward by Applegreen were most recently rejected by councillors in 2019.
However, that decision was overturned at an appeal this month as the developers won approval at the fourth time of asking.
Read more:
Villagers battle weary as fourth inquiry into A1 service station starts
- ‘There is a need’ for A1 service station near Kirby Hill, inquiry told
- Government approves A1 service station after fourth appeal in 25 years
Mr Owens, who gave evidence during the appeal, said the landscape report played a key part in the planning inspector’s decision to grant approval, which made it even more important to understand why the council had changed its conclusions.
He said:
In the email dated November 2019, Mr Gannon said to a colleague: “I’ve massaged the landscape section 9.56 - 9.69 which hopefully reads better.”
Robert Windass, the Conservative councillor for Boroughbridge and one of the planning committee members who previously rejected the service station, said he had “serious concerns” about the email after he made calls for the inquiry last week.
Speaking at a full council meeting, he asked the council’s cabinet member for planning councillor Tim Myatt:
In a statement, councillor Myatt later said he was “confident” that officers always made “fair and impartial” assessments of planning applications.
He said:
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