Readers' Letters: Ripon Cathedral's annexe plan can help move the city forward

Readers’ Letters is a free weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

In recent years Ripon has lost one major institution, Ripon College, and is about to lose another, the army camp. The cathedral is now our biggest and finest reason to visit Ripon.  The college and the army camp brought much needed business and people into the City, Ripon must now use everything it has to try and cover these losses to develop and grow, to move forward and make Ripon into a thriving cathedral city, not just a market town. Bringing in visitors and investment which will enhance the lives and opportunities of the community, filling our empty shops and driving the economy forward.

The cathedral greatly suffers through lack of space and many schemes have been put forward and rejected to provide an area for storage, toilets, a song school and coffee shop. Concerts are regularly booked to overflowing where parts of the cathedral could have accommodated more but couldn’t as these spaces are out of commission because they are being used for storage. The cathedral is the jewel in Ripon’s crown and needs to be recognised as such, it is not being allowed to reach its full potential. The citizens of Ripon use the cathedral for concerts, exhibitions, markets, dinners, children’s education to name just a few. It could do so much more.

Ripon City Council recently said the site needed to be repositioned further back into the stone masons’ yard but they did not take into account the reasons for the existing plan. The toilets need to be close to the cathedral itself, walking over to the stonemasons’ yard is not going to help elderly people or anyone else during the dark winter months when it is so often wet and raining.  Under the existing plan, the stonemason’ yard would be landscaped and planted with trees and shrubs creating an extra green garden space, not losing one.

This plan is a great opportunity to move Ripon forward and help make up the losses that it has suffered in recent years.

Christine Groundwater, Ripon

No dispute over cathedral facilities

I would like to address Mr Stanley's letter in the Stray Ferret.

As far as I am aware, no one has disputed the need for the cathedral to have updated facilities. It is purely the location which is under dispute. 

If the cathedral stopped being so stubborn with insisting the new annexe has to be built on Minster Gardens and applied to build it in the Stonemason's yard which is the overwhelmingly obvious answer it would heal this rift. 

Jenni Holman, Ripon

Good luck to gateway campaigners

In response to the Ferret article in regard to the £12.1 million Station Gateway transport scheme (January29), I’d like to remind readers that it was introduced in 2017 by the then Tory government under Theresa May and then promoted by Boris Johnson when he became Prime Minister the following year.

£1.7 billion was put into the Transforming Cities Fund for specific transport schemes.

The deadline for bids was June 2018. Councils then had to bid for these funds. Harrogate was one of the successful bidders. The schemes were intended to help businesses. However councils had little choice as to how the money could be spent.

How much better if councils had been allowed to decide how the money should be spent. Thousands  of pounds has subsequently been spent fighting and amending the schemes in recent years with no consultation with the public.

Harrogate is desperately in need of investment to upgrade the existing infrastructure and make it attractive to visitors  - not money to tear up our town centre and create chaos for the years to come. This will only deter the very people we want to attract.

I have followed the amended plans in recent years and have been amazed how little these plans would make to the bus and rail station area at great expense and upheaval.

A scheme meant to promote business has been rejected by the very group it was supposed to help — how ironic.

Good luck to the Get Away group in their fight.

Anne Boodt, Harrogate

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