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17
Dec 2024
Conservation and garden charities give verdicts on Ripon Cathedral annexe
Two charities have reiterated their objections to Ripon Cathedral's proposed £8 million annexe development on Minster Gardens.
If approved by North Yorkshire planners next year, the two-storey standalone building will include a song school for choristers, cafe, gift shop, and additional storage space, alongside a Changing Places toilet for increased accessibility.
To make room for the scheme, more than a dozen mature trees would need to be felled — although a veteran beech tree threatened by the axe, would remain under the revised plans.
The Woodland Trust, the UK's leading tree conservation charity and Yorkshire Gardens Trust, which gives advice on planning and other conservation issues relating to Yorkshire's historic designed landscape, are maintaining their opposition having viewed the latest plans.
In a letter, to North Yorkshire Council's planning department. which can be seen on the planing portal, the tree conservation charity said:
The Woodland Trust will be maintaining its objection to this planning application. This is on the basis of continued adverse impacts on the veteran beech tree.
These adverse impacts will result in deterioration of this veteran tree, which is contrary to national planning policy and as such, we consider this application should be considered for refusal in its current form.
The trust added:
An architect's perspective of the proposed development
We recognise that the applicant has revised their plans and in doing so has attempted to retain the veteran beech on site.
(But) the ingress of the proposals into the root protection area of the veteran beech will cause deterioration in both the short and the long-term, posing a threat to the retention of the tree.
These incursions will undoubtedly affect the veteran tree’s vitality, resulting in early deterioration, particularly in the tree's crown.
Such deterioration will result in the tree being more likely to be considered a public hazard and for a greater likeliness of eventual removal.
The proposals also appear to propose significant crown works that would not be undertaken for conservation purposes. For a veteran tree, or any mature/notable tree, with veteran characteristics, this is not acceptable.
With the above in mind, it is clear that the proposals remain unacceptable and contrary to national planning policy. We therefore continue to maintain an objection and ask that permission is refused for this application.
In its response to the revised plans, which can also be seen on the planning portal, the Yorkshire Gardens Trust said:
We remain concerned that the loss of garden and trees and the proposed new construction will still result in harm to Minster Gardens, and to the Ripon Conservation Area, to the Old Courthouse, the Old Jail and Old Deanery due to this proposal within their setting.
The trust added:
We understand that Minster Gardens has recently been listed as an asset of community value by North Yorkshire Council, and in terms of the already limited public benefit of greenspace in the centre of Ripon, loss of some of this garden area and trees will inevitably have some impact.
New trees planted out beyond the World Heritage Site (buffer zone) will increase the biodiversity of that area but will not compensate for the loss of part of the present garden at the centre of this historic cathedral setting.
Whilst we understand Ripon Cathedral’s ambitions to provide facilities that are desirable in the 21st century, we still do not think that the current proposal addresses the concerns and objections that have been expressed about Minster Gardens and the heritage assets in their vicinity.
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