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15
Feb 2023
Last Updated: 15/02/2023
'Inspiring' new £85,000 vision for Ripon remains unpublished — two years on
Ripon Market Place
A report outlining a new “inspiring and innovative” vision for regenerating Ripon has not been published — more than two years after it was announced.
Harrogate Borough Council advertised a 12-month contract to draw up a masterplan for the city in December 2020.
But Ripon city councillors have discovered through a Freedom of Information request that no formal report for the Ripon renewal project has been produced yet.
The Stray Ferret reported in August that work on the masterplan had been paused due to negotiations over the £85,000 contract awarded by Harrogate Borough Council to Bauman Lyons Architects.
At that time, Trevor Watson, Harrogate Borough Council's director of economy and culture, said he did not know when the project — originally scheduled for completion last February — would be finalised.
But he added the aim was to finish it before the launch of the replacement North Yorkshire Council, which comes into being on April 1.
He said:
“We are in dialogue with the consultants and it is very difficult to say when that conversation will be concluded.
“But it will be our intention to bring the project forward in that timeframe.”
At Monday's full meeting of Ripon City Council, leader Andrew Williams, said:
"Both ourselves and Ripon BID, have been trying to obtain a copy of the consultants' report and now we have discovered through a response to the FOI request we submitted to Harrogate Borough Council that no formal report has been produced.
"As we don't want the work carried out to be a waste of time and money I propose that we ask Harrogate to report on where the consultants had got to, as this could be helpful for the future in areas such as seeking grant funding."
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Councillors agreed unanimously for the request to be sent to Harrogate Borough Council and for it to be copied to Councillor Carl Les, the leader of North Yorkshire County Council and North Yorkshire County Council chief executive Richard Flinton.
North Yorkshire County Council and the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership were, along with Harrogate Borough Council, co-funders of the project. which aimed to create a vision for the future of Ripon that would help the city to win funding for infrastructure, planning and community projects.
A consultation was held in 2021 with residents, businesses and community groups which highlighted problems in the city.
These included not enough things for young people to do, traffic in the market place and a lack of affordable housing.
There were also calls for better traffic management on Low Skellgate and Westgate, and a new green route linking the Workhouse Museum and Ripon Cathedral.
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