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24
Apr
High court hearing into Harrogate's Station Gateway scheme opens
A High Court hearing into the £12.6 million Harrogate Station Gateway scheme opened today.
Recorder Mark Ockelton opened proceedings, which are expected to last two days, at Leeds Combined Court.
The Get Away campaign group has challenged North Yorkshire Council over the scheme and taken the matter to the High Court amid concern that the authority failed to consider the wider impacts of the multi-million pound project.
The gateway project would transform Station Parade, Station Square and the One Arch pedestrian tunnel.
Planning barrister Victoria Hutton opened proceedings this morning for the claimants.
Ms Hutton told the court that the case for the campaigners centred around the implementation of Traffic Regulation Orders in the centre of Harrogate.
She said North Yorkshire Council’s executive agreed a resolution in November 2023 to “descope” the scheme, by dropping elements such as pedestrianising part of James Street and reducing a section of Station Parade to single lane traffic.
The resolution included implementing Traffic Regulation Orders and additional public engagement.
The council executive deferred a final decision on the project to the West Yorkshire Combine Authority.
However, Ms Hutton said the introduction of the Traffic Regulation Orders in January 2025 started to implement part of the scheme and were an “irrational” decision and "unlawful" because there was no certainty that the wider project would go ahead.
Ms Hutton said:
Their only purpose is to implement part of the scheme. They cannot simply be revoked by the defendant. The only way is to be quashed by a court or implement fresh measures.
Recorder Ockelton said the wider public engagement was for the scheme, not the traffic orders themselves.
He asked Ms Hutton whether it was the case that wider public engagement could be negative and as a result mean the orders could not be put into effect.
Ms Hutton said:
They are in effect and in operation. They cannot just fall away.
Piers Riley-Smith, a barrister representing the council, told the court that none of the orders in question had come into operation. He is due to give full evidence for the authority later in the two-day hearing.
A judgement on the hearing is expected at a later date. The case continues.
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