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13
Mar
Time and energy 'wasted' on defending Harrogate Station Gateway legal challenges, says transport chief
Time and energy has been "wasted" defending two legal challenges against the £14.6 million Harrogate Station Gateway scheme, the county’s transport chief has said.
Cllr Malcolm Taylor, the Conservative executive councillor for highways at North Yorkshire Council, said a Court of Appeal judgement on Thursday (March 12) showed the authority had won on “all points convincingly”.
The anti-gateway campaign group Get Away is trying to halt the North Yorkshire Council scheme, which involves major changes to Station Parade and Station Square.
It claims the project would harm the town centre and waste public funds.
The group took the matter to the Court of Appeal after losing a judicial review in the High Court in August 2025.
However, judges dismissed the appeal in a judgment handed down on Thursday morning.
In response to the ruling, Cllr Taylor said:
We welcome the Court of Appeal’s clear decision, which confirms that the council acted lawfully and appropriately at every stage of this process.
This is the second time we have had to defend our position in the court and both times we have won all points convincingly. While our costs are recouped from the applicant, we have wasted a significant amount of time and energy on these two unjustified appeals.
This would have been better focussed on delivering a scheme that is about improving access, safety and reliability for everyone using this key part of Harrogate, and has broad support in the town.
During the hearing last week, Victoria Hutton, planning barrister who represented the campaigners, said the case centred on the implementation of Traffic Regulation Orders in the centre of Harrogate.
She said the orders, which were introduced in January 2025, effectively implemented part of the gateway scheme prematurely because further public engagement should have been carried out.
However, the judges said it was not “unlawful” to make the orders.
The judgement said:
I would dismiss the appeal. The respondent was not obliged to carry out a consultation exercise on the elements of the revised scheme before making the order.
It was not unlawful or irrational to make the four orders whilst modifying the fifth proposed traffic regulation. The advice to officers properly dealt with the legal issues and was not in any respect misleading, still less significantly or seriously so.
Supreme Court
In a statement in response to the dismissal, the Get Away group said it has made an application to the Supreme Court to appeal the judgement.
A spokesperson for the group said:
We are extremely disappointed by the outcome of the Court of Appeal hearing and we have immediately made an application to the Supreme Court to appeal the judgement, which our lawyers advise does not properly address the issues we raised.
We know that if the scheme proceeds it will be carbon positive, pose health and safety risks, result in longer journey times and greater congestion, as well as creating two years of disruption at a time when the local Harrogate business community is facing significant economic headwinds with rising costs.
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