Welcome Break is facing further headaches over a new motorway service area just weeks after planning permission for the project was granted.
Vale of York Services was first proposed for the A1(M) in 1996 and has since been subject to a host of objections and three public inquires, with outline planning consent granted in 2021.
Then in July this year local councillors agreed on ‘reserved matters’, effectively allowing the project to go ahead.
Now, local campaign group Kirby Hill Residents Against Motorway Services has begun the process of challenging North Yorkshire Council’s ruling that the new MSA can be built.
The group has filed a pre-action letter with the High Court arguing that the local authority’s decision features “serious legal defects”.
The campaigners, represented by law firm Leigh Day, argue the council applied the wrong legal test when deciding that further environmental-impact assessments were not required for the project.
The group also says the authority should not have excluded nearby proposed major developments when considering the MSA’s potential environmental effects.
North Yorkshire Council must now decide whether to respond to the legal arguments contained in the pre-action letter, with Kirby Hill Residents Against Motorway Services threatening to launch formal proceedings at the High Court if the authority fails to adequately address its concerns.
Gareth Owens, chair of the group, says it contends there were “fundamental legal errors” in the council’s approach to environmental impact assessments.
Rowan Smith, a solicitor at Leigh Day, says his clients contend the new MSA “would destroy the tranquil character of this area of North Yorkshire”, and that the group has “raised what they argue are clear errors of law”.
