Council threatened with judicial review over station improvements project
North Yorkshire Council faces a judicial review over a scheme to improve access to Harrogate station.
The £10.94m Harrogate Gateway project is also intended to encourage more people to walk, cycle and travel by bus and rail
Local business Hornbeam Park Developments has sent a pre-action letter over concerns about the legality of the council’s consultation process.
A letter sent by law firm Waltons said Hornbeam Park owned a number of commercial premises in central Harrogate, some near to the station.
Grounds for potential judicial review included that traffic regulation orders were made without first holding an inquiry and unlawful publicity and consultation in relation to the orders.
The letter said that when the orders were placed on a council website the plan attached was wrong as it missed out the impact on part of a nearby road named James Street and this meant the plan was misleading and unlawful.
Hornbeam Park also seeks to argue that North Yorkshire acted irrationally in resolving to make the orders before securing funds to implement the project, most of which is from the Transforming Cities Fund.
The final ground is a failure to treat as material considerations the desirability of securing and maintaining reasonable access to premises, and failure to consider an expert report commissioned by the council “which sets out the negative impact of the proposal in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change”.
North Yorkshire’s failure to disclose consulting engineer WSP’s Climate Change Appraisal as part of its consultation “was so unfair as to be unlawful.” Hornbeam Park claimed.
A council business case summary stated: “The scheme will establish Harrogate rail station at the heart of the town and the wider Harrogate district and will improve links and access between the town centre, rail station and new developments, with the station becoming a central sustainable travel hub.”
It had a benefit/cost ratio of 1.7:1, which the council said showed “the medium value for money position”. Most of the scheme benefits are related to health and journey benefits for pedestrians, cyclists and rail users, it said.
North Yorkshire’s corporate director of environment, Karl Battersby, said: “We will be responding to the pre-action protocol letter, and we will look to defend our position should legal action be taken.”
Mark Smulian
