"Outrage" as green-light given to motorway services development
The plans have been at the centre of 25 years of controversy
Campaigners who have spent 25 years fighting plans for a new motorway service station on the A1(M) near to Harrogate are "outraged" after it was approved.
Gareth Owens, who's the chair of Kirby Hill Residents Against Motorway Services, has called the decision a "great injustice".
Residents successfully fought against the plans in 1997, 2003 and 2010.
But they've now been approved by government planning inspector David Rose, after a two-week inquiry into the latest decision to turn down the proposals.
Mr. Ownes said the £40 million service station was an "unwanted and inappropriate" development, and claimed it would cause "substantial harm" to the countryside.
He's also called for a major re-think of the planning system, adding:
“Mr Rose has decided that the harm to the landscape and to our community is a price worth paying in order to provide facilities for the convenience of motorists using the A1(M).
“The government’s commitment to localism in planning is supposed to mean that local people, who know best, can shape development in the places where they live and work.
“The planning system has failed us in this respect.”
In the decision notice, the planning inspector Mr. Rose said after hearing arguments from both residents and developers, he concluded the benefits of the service station would outweigh harm to the environment and nearby listed buildings.
He said: “Considerable weight attaches to the less than substantial harm relative to the identified designated heritage assets.
Committee member councillor Pat Marsh said she was “angry and saddened” for campaigners who had done “all they can” to fight the proposals.
She added: “I can’t get my head around why there is a need to spoil the countryside when there are already enough service stations in the area.
“This is a problem of the planning system always being on the side of the developer. It is an unfair and unbalanced system.”
Applegreen was contacted for a comment but did not respond at the time of publication.
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