The leader of Ripon City Council is to call for a decision on whether to allow 1,300 homes to be built in the city to be deferred today.

Government agency Homes England has applied to redevelop Ministry of Defence land in the north-west of the city, between Clotherhome Road and Kirkby Road,

North Yorkshire Council’s strategic planning committee, which adjudicates on large applications, has been recommended to approve the scheme when it meets at 10am this morning.

Cllr Williams warned the plans would lead to “traffic chaos” and the “destruction” of key military heritage sites. He said it would be premature to make a decision until these issues are resolved.

Cllr Williams, who also represents Ripon Minster and Moorside on North Yorkshire Council, told the Stray Ferret:

“I am attending the meeting and will be calling in the strongest terms for members of the strategic planning committee to defer their decision on the Homes England application.

“The application is premature and I find it disingenuous of Homes England to agree to meet with the city council in July to discuss unresolved matters of major concern to the people of Ripon, while seeking approval for their proposals today.”

Cllr Williams added:

“These matters include the city council’s unanimous call for the protection of military heritage on the barracks site and concerns we have also raised about a proposed change to the Somerset Row and Low Skellgate junction.

“As the application stands, the military heritage, which is part of Ripon’s history, is threatened with destruction, which is totally unacceptable, while the planned junction change, which would prevent those heading towards the city from turning right, would lead to traffic chaos, as drivers will either have to go to the Bedern Bank roundabout and double back on themselves or face a long detour on unsuitable roads.”

The 98-page report by council case officer Kate Broadbank recognises the significance of Ripon’s military heritage. It says “Deverell Barracks has extensive heritage significance” and that the demolition of buildings, such as a 1939 military camp and training bridges “represents the most severe harm to significance as it and most of the components within it will be lost”.

One of the bridges.

The report talks about including measures such as a “public art strategy reflecting the history of the barracks” and installing interpretation boards with details about the site’s military history but adds “it is not possible to require assets to be retained”.

The lack of guarantees has heightened Ripon Military Heritage Trust‘s concerns that key military sites will be bulldozed.

The trust said in a statement it was only informed of the recommendation six days before the meeting, even though it had been talking to North Yorkshire Council and Homes England about the military concerns for 15 months.

The statement said:

“It is clear to us that not a single one of our concerns has been addressed. We are extremely disappointed that there seems so little regard for these heritage assets, their significance and their long-term preservation.”

The meeting is due to be broadcast on the council’s YouTube channel here at 10am.

The Stray Ferret is backing Ripon Military Heritage Trust’s campaign to save key military heritage sites at Clotherholme, as reported here. Please join the campaign and sign the petition here. If it gets 500 signatures it will be debated by North Yorkshire Council’s Skipton and Ripon planning committee.

Read more:

• Green light set to be given tomorrow to 1,300 homes in Ripon
• How Ripon played a key role in two world wars
• Community diagnostic centre opens at Ripon hospital

Councillors have been urged to approve plans for 1,300 homes in Ripon when they meet tomorrow (May 14).

The homes, off Clotherholme Road, would have a significant impact on the city, sweeping away key sites of military history and leading to significant changes to roads and junctions.

The plans include a new primary school, sports pitches, a country park and a neighbourhood centre.

Four city centre junctions will be improved and Clotherholme Road, Kirkby Road, College Road and Trinity Lane will be redesigned to prioritise pedestrian safety and encourage cycling.

It would increase Ripon’s population by about 3,000 people, which is greater than the combined size of Masham and Pateley Bridge.

Ripon Military Heritage Trust said in a statement it was “extremely disappointed” and fears rare 1939 military huts and training bridges that played a key role in 20th century warfare will be destroyed. We will publish more on this in a separate article shortly. The Stray Ferret is backing the trust’s campaign to save Ripon’s military history — you can sign the petition here.

A report by case officer Kate Broadbank at North Yorkshire Council recommends councillors on the strategic planning committee grant outline approval, subject to the final details being agreed. The 14 councillors on the committee will decide whether to accept the recommendation.

Ms Broadbank’s report concludes:

“The proposal would contribute towards ensuring the district’s housing needs are met, including the requisite provision of affordable homes, self-build homes, as well as employment land and significant green infrastructure not previously available to the public.

“Overall, for the reasons set out in the report, it is considered the proposal is compliant with the overarching policies of the development plan and national planning policy requirements and thus, represents sustainable development.”

Where the homes would be built. Pic: Homes England

Harrogate Borough Council backed the scheme in February last year, shortly before it was abolished.

The report said it had come back to North Yorkshire Council’s strategic planning committee, which determines major planning applications, because of new information and ongoing discussions around the section 106 payments that developers are required to pay to councils to compensate for the impact of their schemes on local infrastructure.

The section 106 payments include:

• £2.7 million to North Yorkshire Council to provide a new primary school
• £1,9 million to North Yorkshire Council to improve facilities at Ripon Grammar School and Outwood Academy secondary schools
• £1.1 million towards health care
• £198,250 towards bus services.

If councillors approve the scheme, the principle of development will be established; the details will be ironed out in a subsequent reserved matters planning application.

Government agency Homes England, which is proposing the scheme, will appoint a housebuilder once the scheme is ratified.

Ripon Barracks in north-west of Ripon remains an active Ministry of Defence site but is due to be decommissioned over the next few years.

The 85-hectare development site is accessed via Clotherholme Road to the south and Kirkby Road to the north.

Read more:

• New Clotherholme plans heighten fears for Ripon’s military heritage
• New details of Ripon’s 1,300-home Clotherholme scheme released

The Stray Ferret is today backing a campaign by Ripon Military Heritage Trust to save key parts of the city’s military history.

Government agency Homes England has planning permission to build 1,300 homes on army barracks at Clotherholme.

But there are fears it will bulldoze sites of international significance, including huts built by Neville Chamberlain’s government in 1939 and training bridges that shaped international warfare, to make way for the housing.

The trust accepts the homes will be built but is campaigning to preserve a number of surviving structures on a site at Laver Banks.

It wants to repurpose huts that would otherwise be demolished not just for heritage reasons but also so they can be used for employment and community use.

They would then feature in a newly created military heritage centre and a military heritage trail that would tell the story of Ripon’s part in international warfare.

We have launched a petition urging people to back the campaign to save Ripon’s military heritage.

If 500 people sign then North Yorkshire Council’s Skipton and Ripon area constituency committee will be obliged to debate it, which will present an opportunity to raise awareness of the issue.

You can sign here.

The trust has adopted the campaign slogan ‘heritage worth fighting for’.

Trustee Michael Furse said:

“The wooden militia camp is unique because it is the last one standing.

“We are not proposing to stop the development. What we are saying is we would like to preserve some of the most important structures from it on a different site.

“We would then like to display those structures in a way that shows them off in a cohesive manner.”

The campaign will run up to the 80th anniversary celebrations of D-Day when Winston Churchill’s great grandson will be in Ripon for the city’s commemorations.

John Plummer, editor of the Stray Ferret, said:

“We fully support this campaign. Ripon’s military heritage should be treasured — not destroyed.”

In the weeks ahead we will provide updates on the campaign and, with the help of the trust, tell the remarkable story of Ripon’s vital role in defending Britain over the years.

Read more:

• New Clotherholme plans heighten fears for Ripon’s military heritage
• Sketches by Magritte to go under the hammer in Ripon

Will the crucial role of Ripon’s Royal Engineers in the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy be lost in the sands of time?

As the 80th anniversary of this key event in world history fast approaches and features in media coverage across the globe, Ripon Military Heritage Trust is facing a battle with the bulldozers on the home front.

The Ripon barracks site, which is due to be vacated by 21 Engineer Regiment of the Royal Engineers in two years to make way for the 1,300-home Clotherholme development, is a time capsule that helps to tell the story of world war and cold war invention, ingenuity and innovation.

The area uniquely links priceless relics of the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 conflicts that are of major historical importance.

Heritage assets currently located there include extremely rare accommodation huts built in 1939, along with bridges and structures, such as a concrete weir constructed on the River Laver to turn the turbines of a power station serving a huge World War One army camp.

The battle cry of Ripon Military Heritage Trust can be seen in a banner hanging high above High Skellgate

In the wake of the Japanese aerial bombardment of the USA fleet at Pearl Harbour in December 1941, the Americans came to Ripon to learn from the Royal Engineers how to deal with unexploded ordnance.

It was a Trans-Atlantic training arrangement and helping-hand from across the sea, that emphasised the growing ‘special relationship’ between the two countries.

Ripon was also the base where allied military personnel from the USA, Canada and Europe, were trained in the methods of installing Bailey Bridges.

Ripon’s role recognised by top military figures

The importance of this then revolutionary, new bridging system was highlighted in a letter to the Royal Engineers from Field-Marshal Montgomery who wrote:

“…As far as my own operations were concerned with the Eighth Army in Italy and 21 Army Group in N.W. Europe, I could never have maintained the speed and tempo of forward movement without large supplies of Bailey bridging…”.

Montgomery and the top brass of the USA military are on record for their recognition of Ripon’s world-wide war era significance, but Ripon Military Heritage Trust, fears for the future of the heritage assets that they hope to preserve as a means of reminding existing and future generations of the exceptional part that the city played in two world wars and the subsequent cold war.

Trust display

The trust had a display at yesterday’s launch of Ripon’s D-Day programme of 80th anniversary commemoration and celebration events on the lawns of the Ripon Inn.

Trustees Michael and Jane Furse of Ripon Military Heritage Trust, showed Major Daryl Murphy, the second-in-command of Ripon’s Royal Engineers the newly-created display.

It has now been moved inside the Ripon Inn and gives a fascinating insight into Ripon’s military history and the heritage assets that it is attempting to save from destruction.

Trustee Michael Furse told the Stray Ferret:

“The city has  a rich and deep military history and has enjoyed a long and close relationship with the Royal Engineers.

“We and many Ripon residents strongly believe that the important heritage assets at the barracks site are worth fighting for.”

Main image: Field-Marshal Montgomery recognised the important role that Ripon’s Royal Engineers played in the installation of Bailey Bridges, such as this one in Italy. Picture Wikipedia

Read more:

• The countdown is on for Ripon’s D-Day anniversary event
• Rallying call from Ripon Military Heritage Trust

The organisation fighting to save Ripon’s military heritage from being bulldozed has said it is “hugely disappointed” about updated plans for the 1,300-home Clotherholme housing scheme.

Government agencies Homes England and the Defence infrastructure Organisation provided the update in a planning report published on North Yorkshire Council’s website last week.

The homes will be built at the barracks site which contains internationally significant military structures, including huts constructed in 1939 when Neville Chamberlain’s government prepared for war with Germany and training bridges that influenced global warfare.

The demolition training bridge. Pic: Ripon Military Heritage Trust

The report pledged to “work with the Ripon Military Heritage Trust on a heritage strategy which will balance the urgent need for new homes for local people with a strategy for preserving and recording the unique history and heritage of the barracks”.

But the trust, which has launched a website as part of a campaign to preserve key aspects of the site, fears the agencies have shown little desire to co-operate since Harrogate Borough Council granted planning permission in February last year and their pledges remain vague and opaque.

Trust chairman Guy Wilson said:

“We are hugely disappointed that after 15 months of engagement with Homes England, the current outline planning application lacks any provision for the preservation of even a single example of the rare and unique huts at Deverell Barracks.

“Neither has any land been allocated to allow for the relocation and re-use of these heritage assets. Both were specific requests that the Harrogate Borough Council planning committee called for in February 2023.

“It has sadly become apparent that none of the parties to this development has any real interest in preserving the heritage of the site and none has made any attempt to work constructively with us. All they are interested in is appearing to do enough to get their present plans passed without alteration, in which case the result will be that significant heritage assets will be lost and this we very much regret.”

The planning update said the housing scheme will preserve the main military roads and names as well as provide information signs.

How the site will look. Pic: Homes England

It also talks about “exploring ways to integrate a walking tour, virtual tour or to develop other forms of public exhibition at the site”.

One of the conditions of planning consent was to allocate £100,000 to the trust to conduct a feasibility study on preserving and retaining some of the existing military buildings on the site. But progress since then has been limited.

Mr Wilson said:

“Unfortunately, we are sceptical about their commitment to developing a feasibility study, as after 15 months of engagement with Homes England there has been no proper engagement with the real issues involved in preserving the heritage.

“During that period work has begun on producing an options appraisal; all the proposals put forward by the trust have been ignored and they have refused to allow the process to be based on a clear understanding of the assets’ heritage significance.”

He added:

“Where is the commitment to assess significance? Where is the list of assets to be preserved? Where is the agreement to transfer ownership of assets required? Where is the commitment to allocate the necessary land to relocate assets? Where is the commitment to build into the development timescale the reality of fund-raising?

“Instead of work on these crucial issues we have been stonewalled at every turn by all parties. Their heritage strategy is aimed at ticking boxes and getting approvals not at preserving the heritage.”

Read more:

• Tank will be on the Ripon Inn lawn for launch of D-Day anniversary celebrations
• New details of Ripon’s 1,300-home Clotherholme scheme released

Work on the 1,300-home Clotherholme scheme in Ripon is expected to begin next year and last until 2037, according to a newly published update.

Land at Claro Barracks, Deverell Barracks and Laver Banks will be bulldozed to make way for the homes, a primary school and a neighbourhood centre with shops, a café and a community space.

Four city-centre junctions will be improved and Clotherholme Road, Kirkby Road, College Road and Trinity Lane will be redesigned to prioritise pedestrian safety and encourage cycling.

Homes England, the public body that funds new affordable housing, and the Defence infrastructure Organisation, which is part of the Ministry of Defence, provided the update in a planning report published on North Yorkshire Council’s website.

Councillors granted planning permission subject to conditions in February last year, shortly before Harrogate Borough Council was abolished. Six councillors voted in favour and six voted against, which meant the committee chair’s casting vote in favour proved decisive.

The new planning report says the barracks scheme will create an “exemplar new sustainable community” on brownfield land on the edge of Ripon. Here are some of the key details.

The red section indicates where will be affected.

30% affordable homes and new school

Clotherholme will include 1,300 homes, 30% of which will be classed as affordable. The report said:

“That’s 370 new affordable homes for local people, split between affordable rent and shared ownership

“We’ll also build a new primary school next to a new local neighbourhood centre with shops, a café, employment and training facilities and community space. We’ll provide new improved open space at Laver Banks which will be accessible to the whole community.”

A total of 5% of the site will be dedicated to custom build homes providing up to 60 extra care / assisted living homes.

Developers are obliged to pay to mitigate for the impact of their development on local infrastructure through legally binding contracts negotiated with councils known as section 106 agreements.

The new planning report says the proposals for financial contributions include:

• £2.7m towards a two-form entry primary school, which will be built at the neighbourhood centre in the middle of Clotherholme.
• £1.9m towards the expansion of local secondary education.
• £1.07 million towards improved healthcare buildings and facilities in Ripon.

The report adds:

“We’ll provide traffic-free routes to school across the whole development, which connect into existing walking and cycling routes, and we’ll make sure the school has playing fields too.

“The school will be built and opened early in the development timeline, meaning that families moving to Clotherholme will have school places for their children, and other local schools won’t be put under pressure.”

Major transport schemes in Ripon

The report says there will be “24 separate improvements to the road network agreed with North Yorkshire Council to make sure that Ripon keeps moving”.

They include improvements to four city-centre junctions “before the first home is occupied at Clotherholme”.

The four junction improvements are:

• Traffic flow improvements at the clocktower junction
• Traffic flow improvements at Coltsgate Hill junctions on North Street
• Signalling improvement at Skellgate junction
• Priority changes at Westgate Street/ Blossomgate

The report adds:

“We will install state-of-the-art signal control as part of these upgrades which allow real-time monitoring of traffic build-up and management of the signals to reduce congestion and maximise traffic flow.

“Our proposals also include the provision of a one-way scheme at Kirkby Road (westbound), College Road (eastbound) and Trinity Lane (southbound). Blossomgate, east of Marshall Way, will also become one-way.”

The report says there will be £793,000 towards delivering a phased bus service for Clotherholme over a four-year period, adding:

“We will redesign Clotherholme Road, Kirkby Road, College Road and Trinity Lane to prioritise pedestrian safety and encourage cycling, and we will introduce traffic-calming measures to reduce vehicle speeds. Our package of transport and active travel proposals have already been agreed in principle with North Yorkshire Council.”

12-year timeline

The report says the Ministry of Defence “has confirmed that they are in the process of agreeing a transfer of the land at Ripon barracks to Homes England”, adding:

“Following transfer, the land will be redeveloped by Homes England and partners in phases commencing with Deverell Barracks and moving to Claro and Laver Banks once the army has fully vacated to ensure the growth of a sustainable community.

Indicative phasing plan Indicative phasing Phase 1 2025 – 2029 Phase 2 2028 – 2033 Phase 3 2027 Phase 3 2027 Phase 4 2027 – 2028 Phase 5 2027 and 2029 Phase 6 2028 – 2033 Phase 7 2030 – 2032 Phase 8 2031 – 2037 Phase 9 2029 – 2033 The phasing plan on page 15 shows the order in which we’re intending to develop parcels of land at Ripon Barracks.

A developer partner will be appointed in 2025 and between 50 and 100 homes per year will be built meaning that the full redevelopment will take around 13 to 14 years to complete.

“There will be a series of key milestones throughout redevelopment including the opening up of Laver Banks for public use in 2027, phased provision of the local centre between 2028 and 2033 as well as the new primary school which is due to open in 2028.”

Green space

The report says nearly 50% of Clotherholme will be public green space, which is the equivalent to about 55 football pitches. Of this 39.6 hectares, nearly 7.5 hectares will be playing fields.

The report says Homes England and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation are writing a biodiversity net gain delivery plan “which sets out our approach to habitat preservation and creation of on-site and off-site biodiversity to achieve a target of 10% net gain”.

It adds:

“We will be providing playing fields at the new primary school which could be available for community use too. We’ll separately provide 11 sports pitches as part of Laver Banks improved open space (including a senior and junior football pitch and club house), and are looking to collaborate with local clubs to make sure we’re providing what is needed.

“We will also be paying towards the upkeep of these facilities — all part of the site-wide stewardship strategy we’re producing. We will also provide financial contributions towards the off-site provision of rugby, cricket, hockey and 3G sports pitches, for the benefit of sport in Ripon.”

Read more:

• Plans approved for 1,300 homes at Ripon Barracks
• Ripon primary school named as one of the most diverse in North Yorkshire
• BT answers Ripon Civic Society’s call to repair historic city centre telephone kiosks

‘Heritage Worth Fighting For’ is the battlecry of Ripon Military Heritage Trust, as it steps up its campaign to save priceless elements of the city’s world war history from the bulldozer.

The trust, which was established last year, has created a website to raise awareness of its work and attract support from the public and interested parties locally, nationally and internationally.

The heritage items that they are fighting to save include buildings, bridges and other structures that help to tell the story of the strategic role that Ripon played in two world wars and other conflicts.

Each of the heritage assets are located on the Ripon barracks site, where the 1,300-home Clotherholme development led by Homes England – the government’s housing and regeneration agency – is due to begin in 2026, when the Royal Engineers vacate the base that has been their home for decades.

Guy Wilson (fourth from left) is pictured with fellow trustees Lt Col (Retd) Bob Lisle, Jane Furse, Stuart Martin and Michael Furse. Picture RMHT

Chairman of trustees Guy Wilson is, along with fellow trustees, using the website to make a passionate rallying call.

Mr Wilson, who was previously responsible for bringing the Royal Armouries Museum to Leeds in 1988, told the Stray Ferret:

“We need help and support from the public in a number of ways. Most urgent is our need to wake up those in positions of power and influence to the importance of saving Ripon’s unique World War Two heritage.

“Currently the landowners — the Ministry of Defence — and the local planners have taken a Pontius Pilate attitude and washed their hands of any active involvement leaving the trust to deal on its own with the developers — Homes England — who have so far refused to contemplate any change from the submitted development plans.

“If this situation continues the heritage will be lost. Instead ,we need positive engagement and with that we believe that a group of barrack buildings can be saved in a way which would benefit both Ripon and the proposed development.

Mr Wilson added:

“If people want to help they should get in touch with us via our website and be prepared to write letters to their MP, to the planning authority, to the Ministry of Defence and to any relevant contacts they may have. There is also talk locally of organising petitions and other direct actions to show support for the heritage and we expect more to develop on this front soon.”

D-Day for decision makers

Mr Wilson said the forthcoming 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6 presented an opportunity to make the case to a wider audience because of the link between the threatened heritage in Ripon and the success of D-Day.

He added:

“We hope to encourage debate both locally and nationally about the mismatch between the occasional official rhetoric about the debt we owe to the ‘finest hour’ generation and the stark reality of official indifference to the fate of highly significant historic assets that remain to us from that period.

“So we will be encouraging all parts of the news and media world to get involved and to cover the story, we’ll be writing letters to newspapers and journals ourselves, and  we’ll be reporting on our success, or lack of it , in seeking the  engagement of all relevant parties in a proper and constructive process to save Ripon’s military heritage.”

The Royal Engineers’ vital role in the Second World War

During the Second World War, the School of Military Engineering was relocated from Chatham to Ripon. With it came the ancillary training establishments which taught critical skills such as bomb disposal and anti-tank warfare.

Combat engineers, both British and allied, were trained at Ripon in such skills as bridging and mine clearance. US Army Engineers came to the city after Pearl Harbour to learn how to defuse unexploded bombs and then a US section of the School of Military Engineering was established in Ripon so allied forces could be taught the same things.

On D-Day, some 25% of the troops that landed in Normandy were engineers, far more than normal for combat, but essential as the engineers had so much to do to get the troops safely ashore and moving inland.

British and allied forces were taught in Ripon how to install Bailey Bridges, such as this one in Imola, Italy, which is being crossed by a Sherman Firefly tank. Picture: Wikipedia

Mr Wilson said:

“Not all of them were trained in Ripon but what happened in Ripon influenced every one of them. And there is still much we do not understand and need to find out. For instance, there was an organisation called the Experimental Anti-Tank Establishment.

“We know it was testing anti-tank mines at Ripon. And in a lecture given in December1945 Major General Inglis noted that in 1942  “a number of curious devices such as snakes, flails, rollers and ploughs were being developed by the Anti-Tank Experimental Establishment. This suggests that the Experimental Anti-Tank Establishment and thus Ripon may have had a hand in the early development of what became known as ‘Hobart’s funnies’, those altered ‘engineer’ tanks which proved their worth on and after D-Day.”

Funding for the trust’s work

Mr Wilson added:

“Currently the trust is looking to raise only sufficient money to fund our continuing public relations campaign. A modest £5,000 will see us through this year. Beyond that we cannot start any campaign until we know what we are allowed to do.

“The what and where and how has to be agreed before we can cost any project and start fund-raising for it. And currently no one will properly engage with us to produce the first, essential requirement – a thorough assessment of the significance of the Ripon site and its surviving heritage assets.

“We are, therefore, stuck at the starting post and the danger is that, suddenly the development plans will be passed and demolition will begin before we have had tine to develop a proper scheme to save what is most important.”

Support from Ripon City Council

The leader of Ripon City Council, Councillor Andrew Williams, said:

“We are unanimous in our support for all that the trust is doing and fellow North Yorkshire councillor Barbara Brodigan and I have attended a number of meetings that the trust has held with Homes England, to make the city’s feelings known.”

He added:

“The military heritage within the barracks site must be maintained. It not only belongs to the people of Ripon, but to the nation and is a unique reminder of the part that our Royal Engineers played in fighting for our freedom and the liberation of Europe.

“As well as being a means of educating future generations about the horrors of war, the assets on the barracks site are part of Ripon’s wider heritage dating back 1,351 years to the establishment by Wilfrid of the cathedral and can play an important role in our development as a destination for heritage-based tourism.”

What Homes England says

In a previous statement Homes England, said:

“We remain committed to delivering a military heritage strategy as part of our wider proposals for the site and continue to discuss options with the local planning authority and the Ripon Military Heritage Trust.”

The government housebuilding agency added:

• Details for the heritage strategy, its funding, and potential use of the existing military structures continue to be fine-tuned as part of the planning application process.
• As part of ongoing discussions with North Yorkshire Council, Homes England and The Defence Infrastructure Organisation have committed to spending £100.000 towards the progression of the submitted heritage strategy. The council has asked Homes England / the DIO to continue engagement with Ripon Military Heritage Trust over the submitted heritage strategy and a number of options are now being explored as part of those discussions.

Read more:

• Trust fights to save Ripon’s priceless military heritage
• Ripon volunteers prepare for D-Day anniversary

Ripon’s priceless military heritage assets are under threat once more after an about-turn from the government’s housing and regeneration agency Homes England.

Ripon played a major role in both world wars and the Cold War. The poet Wilfred Owen was among thousands stationed in the city during the First World War and the Laver Banks site played a pioneering role in military bridges. Further details are available here.

Military and civic organisations campaigned to preserve this heritage when plans were revealed to build 1,300 homes at the city’s barracks, which will be the biggest single residential development in Ripon’s history.

They thought the section 106 agreement agreed with developers when the project was approved last year would do this but Jane Furse (pictured below) a trustee of Ripon Military Heritage Trust, told the Stray Ferret:

“Homes England has said that the military heritage aspects of the barracks site has not been included in the section 106 agreement that they have been drawing up with North Yorkshire planners.

“This comes as a massive disappointment after we have fought so hard to ensure that the extremely rare and historically-important assets currently on the proposed housing development site have the legal protection that would be afforded through the 106  agreement.

“Homes England’s actions fly in the face of a democratic decision made at a Harrogate Borough Council meeting last February, when members agreed that a legally-binding agreement needed to be in place to protect the site’s military heritage.”

Ms Furse added:

“Ripon, as a military city played a crucial role in both world wars and the subsequent cold war period in areas ranging from bomb disposal to the development of Bailey Bridges that were used in many different theatres of war.

“Its Royal Engineers received the Freedom of the City in 1949 in thanks for their worldwide service and it is rather ironic, in a year when we will be marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, to find ourselves in an uncertain position with regard to the heritage that Ripon has built over decades, and which now could be lost to a housing development

“Our fight goes on and we will be pressing North Yorkshire Council to call on Homes England to carry out the wishes of the councillors who represent Ripon and the wider area.”

This heavy girder bridge over the River Laver on the barracks site was the successor to the Bailey Bridge.

At the Harrogate Borough Council planning meeting in February at which Homes England was effectively given the green light for the 1,300-home development to be known as Clotherholme, councillors agreed  a clause, referring to: ‘provision within the s106 to secure a strategy to secure military heritage within the site.’

Without this in place any plans to preserve and promote Ripon’s military history and develop a trail that has potential to attract heritage tourists to the city will remain in doubt.

The Stray Ferret is seeking a response from Homes England.

Main image: Rare huts that were home to Second World War soldiers are among the heritage buildings the trust is trying to preserve. Picture RMHT

Read more:

• Ripon’s rich military heritage is under threat
• Council requires heritage assets at Ripon site to have legal protection