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.
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Green light set to be given tomorrow to 1,300 homes in Ripon
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
Stray Ferret backs campaign to save Ripon’s military heritage
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
Ripon campaigners prepare for post D-Day battle with the bulldozers
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:
Planning update
Last week, the government agencies Homes England and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation provided an update on the Clotherholme proposals in a planning report published on North Yorkshire Council’s website.
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”.
The trust’s continuing concerns
But the trust, which has launched a website as part of a campaign to preserve key aspects of the site, believes 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
Trust display
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.
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