Services plan should be rethought - campaigners

Campaigners against a planned new motorway service station have called for the project to be reconsidered after new proposals were submitted.

Outline planning permission was granted for a new Welcome Break motorway service area on the A1(M) at Kirby Hill, near Boroughbridge, in 2021.

However, objectors said bigger structures covering more land had since been proposed, and asked North Yorkshire Council to consider whether the most recent plans required a fresh environmental impact assessment to be carried out.

A North Yorkshire Council spokesperson said the Vale of York service station plan "remained under consideration" and the authority was not able to comment on live applications.

Members of the Kirby Hill Residents Against Motorway Services (RAMS) group said recently submitted plans showed the proposed service station had grown in scale, with the new motorway overbridge required to access the services now 30% higher than the design approved in the outline application.

New plans also showed the scheme's infrastructure now extended east of the motorway across a field previously earmarked to return to agriculture, bringing the development closer to the village of Kirby Hill, campaigners said.

Gareth Owens, chair of Kirby Hill RAMS, said: "It's not what was approved. It's bigger, it's bulkier and it's crept well beyond the agreed scale and impact.

"The increased environmental harm hasn't even been assessed by the applicant."

Kirby Hill RAMS said it had formally asked North Yorkshire Council to issue a "screening opinion" as to whether the new reserved plans should be accompanied by a fresh environmental impact assessment.

The group said lawyers for the council were yet to respond, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Mr Owens said: "Applegreen and Welcome Break are trying to force through a detailed planning application that's now riddled with problems.

"This would be a sub-standard, environmentally harmful motorway service area, not fit for the 21st Century."

He added: "If the scheme can't be built to conform with the outline permission, the reserved matters application cannot be used to change it into something that would never have been approved."

Mr Owens said planners should refuse the application and "send the developer back to the drawing board".

Martin Grainger, North Yorkshire Council's head of development management, said: "The reserved matters application relating to the Vale of York motorway service station proposal remains under consideration and will be reported to members of the council's strategic planning committee at the appropriate point."

Welcome Break has been approached for comment.

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