Ripon councillors are calling for further action to smarten up a derelict site on one of the city’s key tourist routes.

The former Express petrol station and convenience store on Skellbank, has been empty for years.

It is located in a largely residential area of the city, on the route to Fountains Abbey and diagonally across the road from Hugh Ripley Hall, named in honour of Ripon’s first mayor.

In early 2021 Harrogate Borough Council planning enforcement officers instructed the owner to tidy the site, cut back vegetation and leave it in an acceptable manner prior to any further development.

The site as it looks today

However, as it remains in a derelict and overgrown state, city councillors at Monday night’s full meeting agreed to call for further enforcement action to be taken by HBC.

Councillor Stuart Flatley’s request for HBC to serve a Section 125 notice on the site owner was unanimously supported, after he said:

“This area is on the route to the Fountains Abbey World Heritage Site and has been in this unacceptable condition for many years and we can’t let this continue.”

City council leader Andrew Williams who seconded the proposal, said:

“As well as supporting this, I would like to go a step further and look at a compulsory purchase order for the site, so that it can be cleared and used for much-needed additional car parking spaces that can serve visitors to the city, hospital and Hugh Ripley Hall.”

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Section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 provides a local planning authority with the power to take steps requiring land be cleaned up when its condition adversely affects the amenity of the area.

If it appears that the amenity of part of their area is being adversely affected by the condition of neighbouring land and buildings, they may serve a notice on the owner requiring that the situation be remedied.