A motorway services area proposed for the A1(M) nearing its 25th year of planning difficulties is facing fresh objections from locals.
Vale of York services, also known as Kirby Hill services, was first mooted in 1996, but plans to build the new MSA between junctions 48 and 49 of the motorway were met with rejection after rejection by Harrogate Borough Council. The plans were subject to three Public Inquiries, before outline planning consent was granted by a fourth in 2021.
Now, a local pressure group, Kirby Hill Residents Against Motorway Services (KH RAMS), says plans put forward by developers Applegreen and Welcome Break as the planning process moves on have “crept well beyond the agreed scale” that was signed off by the 2021 outline consent.
Local publication Your Harrogate details that a meeting planned by North Yorkshire Council’s strategic planning committee was called off over concerns raised by KH RAMS.
The campaigners have raised a number of objections, including that a proposed motorway overbridge has grown 30% higher than that which was agreed in outline planning, while the group also says plans indicate the MSA will encroach on a field previously reserved for agriculture.
KH RAMS has asked the council to consider whether a fresh environmental impact assessment should be conducted for the project, with the chair of the group saying plans submitted as part of the move from outline to full planning permission represent a “sub-standard, environmentally-harmful MSA, not fit for the 21st century”.
North Yorkshire Council told Your Harrogate the proposal “remains under consideration and will be reported to members of the council’s strategic planning committee at the appropriate point”.
