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08
Mar 2023
Last Updated: 08/03/2023
Ripon councillors consider judicial review on 1,300-home Clotherholme plan
Ripon City Council is to take legal advice on the merits of seeking a judicial review of Harrogate Borough Council's handling of the 1,300-home Clotherholme planning application.
The Homes England development on Ministry of Defence land at Claro Barracks, Deverell Barracks and Laver Banks was granted outline approval on February 23 on the casting vote of planning committee chair and Conservative councillor Rebecca Burnett.
This came after votes were tied at six for and six against supporting a recommendation to defer the plans to officers for approval subject to conditions.
At the planning meeting no reference was made by officers to a traffic assessment commissioned by Ripon City Council in 2020, because of fears that additional vehicle movements generated by the barracks scheme would cause permanent gridlock across Ripon.
A subsequent report from the consultant, who carried out the assessment, contained recommendations on a range of mitigation measures that could be taken at key junctions and traffic hotspots to reduce pressure on Ripon's roads.
In the light of the report, the city council called on Homes England to reduce the number of houses in the development to an initial 800, with the option to seek approval for a further 500 once the traffic impact of the first phase of the scheme had been assessed.
At Monday night's full Ripon City Council meeting, Independent council leader Andrew Williams said:
"It is clear that our traffic survey and the correspondence that we had with Harrogate Borough Council planners was totally ignored.
"They have ridden roughshod over the wishes of people living in the city, leaving them with a potential problem to deal with for years to come."
Ripon Liberal Democrat county and city councillor Barbara Brodigan told the meeting:
"I attended the planning committee to speak on behalf of the Ripon Spa Residents Action Group about the concerns we have about traffic, but it appeared to me that this was a done deal.
"The city council's own traffic assessment wasn't even raised by officers."
City councillors unanimously supported a proposal put by Cllr Williams and seconded by Cllr Brodigan, to take initial legal advice on the merits of seeking a judicial review of Harrogate Borough Council's handling of the planning application.
At the February 23 planning meeting, David Rowlinson, speaking on behalf of Homes England, said:
“We’re not new to this site, we’ve been working on it for five years. We’ve looked at this very thoroughly and worked with North Yorkshire County Council’s highways department to get their on-the-ground views.
“We feel we’ve robustly assessed the impacts and come up with the best solution possible for Ripon.
“North Yorkshire County Council has confirmed there is no defensible reason to refuse the application on highways and transport grounds.”
Read more:
- 1,300 home Ripon Barracks development approved
- Ripon councillors call for number of homes at Clotherholme to be reduced
- Councillors employ traffic consultant to assess impact of Ripon homes scheme
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