Judicial Review into Planning Approval for £20m Harrogate College redevelopment

• Buildings refurbished as part of £6m public investment just eight years ago to be demolished
• Planning process called into question as transport and parking issues remain unresolved as another £16m of public funding set to be spent on College

Controversial plans to redevelop Harrogate College must be rethought. North Yorkshire Council have agreed that the planning application has not been properly considered.

Hornbeam Park, which neighbours the college and is an important local economic contributor, says council planners failed to consider significant local objections and rushed through the planning application under delegated powers.

The proposal will create local parking chaos, the implications of which have not been fully understood, says Hornbeam Park, and needs to be properly thought through.

Chris Bentley, for Hornbeam Park, said:

While we always welcome much-needed investment in local education facilities, this ill-conceived proposal is not a good deal for Harrogate.

The neighbouring community will be severely inconvenienced by parking and congestion issues during the nearly two years of construction period, when no parking will be provided by the College for its staff or contractors, despite them having access to neighbouring Department for Education land.

The plans have also come under attack for their negative impact on much-needed parking in the area, both during and after construction.

Despite the College requiring about 200 parking spaces, only a fraction of that will be available during construction; resulting in a scramble for college staff, students and contractors to use surrounding residential streets, Hornbeam Park, Hornbeam Park Station and Pannal train station parking facilities instead.

The long-term parking plan will only see 88 vehicle spaces and 50 cycle spaces which locals say is wholly inadequate for the number of expected users.

Chris Bentley added:

Whilst we understand the College’s pleasure in securing this funding, their plans, which have been waved through by the Council, do not show the level of consideration that is needed for this complicated site.

We have made the difficult decision to launch a judicial review as we feel there are deficiencies in the proposals and the Council’s decision making, and we hope through this process we can ensure that a better proposal comes forward in the future.

North Yorkshire Council’s director of community development, Nic Harne, said:

Planning permission for the demolition of existing buildings and the construction of new teaching and workshop blocks at Harrogate College was granted in April.

We have now received a legal challenge against the decision based on technical issues with the planning process. Given these issues, we now expect the existing planning decision to be quashed.

This will allow the planning decision-making process to be re-run.

We are working with the applicant, Luminate Education Group, which the college is part of, to find a resolution as quickly as we can.