Another of Ripon’s eyesores is going to be tidied up.
The site of the former Express petrol station and convenience store on Skellbank, has been left derelict for years.
It is in a largely residential area of the city, diagonally across the road from Hugh Ripley Hall, named in honour of Ripon’s first mayor.
Now, following intervention from Councillor Mike Chambers, the fenced off and overgrown area will be smartened up.
Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet member for homes and safer communities, told the Stray Ferret:
“The owner has been instructed to tidy the site, cut back vegetation etc to ensure it is left in an acceptable manner prior to any further development.”
He added:
“It has been in its current state for a number of years.”
Cllr Chambers, who is a parish, district and county councillor has worked with HBC planning enforcement officers, to bring about the tidy up demand.
The former Ripon Library site at Skellgarths has been tidied up and hoarded off
Last year, he was successful in getting hoardings erected on the former Ripon Library site on Skellgarths.
That area was left derelict for more than five years, after the developer who planned an in-fill residential development there went bust.
The clean-up of the former petrol station will mark a tidy ‘hat-trick’ for Cllr Chambers, who has also liaised with HBC over plans to level and ‘green’ a site in Allhallowgate.
The city centre site has been hoarded off for a couple of years, after a proposed social housing development for HBC had to be abandoned because a sinkhole opened up on the land.
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As Ripon looks forward to emerging from the covid lockdown city leaders want to see it back in business, and attracting visitors and tourists.
With both the former library site at Skellgarths and the petrol station at Skellbank on a key tourist route in and out of Ripon, city councillors have welcomed the tidy-up proposals.
In its bid to attract more visitors to boost post-pandemic trade, the council is planning to put seasonal lighting in the trees on the five Ripon bypass roundabouts.
This proposal is subject to approval from the highways department of North Yorkshire County Council and follows a extension of the city’s Christmas decorations.
An additional £65,000 was spent last year and money has been set aside for further improvements this year.