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26
Feb
Harrogate Station Gateway legal action 'will not halt construction', says transport chief
North Yorkshire’s transport chief Cllr Keane Duncan has said a legal challenge against the £12.1 million Station Gateway project will not halt construction of the scheme.
Last week, the Stray Ferret revealed a decision on whether the gateway proceeds could be decided by London’s High Court of Justice after the anti-gateway business group Get Away instigated legal proceedings.
Get Away claims the council’s failure to consider the wider impacts of the proposal and to consult fully with the public have rendered the scheme’s Traffic Regulation Orders illegal.
North Yorkshire Council has strongly refuted the proposed grounds for the challenge.
However, Cllr Duncan, told a full council meeting today (February 26) that the legal action will not halt construction on some elements of the scheme outside the traffic regulation orders, such as improvements to One Arch.
He added that a report to commence construction would be brought to the council’s executive “at the earliest opportunity”.
Cllr Duncan, the council’s Conservative executive member for highways and transport, said:
It’s important to be clear, the purpose of this legal challenge is really simple: to block the project.
We are fighting this challenge as strongly and as robustly as we can. We have engaged top legal counsel. We are preparing to fight the case in the High Court.
While it could take four to six months for a hearing, the challenge will not halt construction. We can proceed with key elements of the scheme which fall outside the traffic regulation orders [such as] improvements to Station Parade, to One Arch and to the traffic signals.
A report will be taken to the executive at the earliest opportunity to enable construction to happen. It’s really important, I think, that we see this project through to secure the £12 million of investment and to deliver vital improvements in Harrogate. But most importantly to defend the democratic decision we have taken and the protect the democratic process that we are all part of.
Cllr Duncan previously warned that funding “cannot be diverted” for the scheme and warned that Harrogate risked losing out on a “multi-million-pound investment to improve the town” if the project is blocked.
Last week, Steven Baines, a local business owner and spokesperson for the Get Away group, said that the group had commenced a High Court legal challenge.
Steven Baines on lower Station Parade.
Solicitors acting on behalf of the group served notice on both North Yorkshire Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Mr Baines said last week:
Not only is there anger from the Harrogate business and trade community that this is the wrong scheme for the town but there is outrage at the way it was pushed through without adequate consultation.
This is simply not good enough and this is why we want the whole matter to be out in the open and heard by the High Court so we can get to the bottom of what has gone on here.
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