Harrogate Council to pay £25,000 costs over Leon plan refusal

A council must pay £25,000 to a fast food chain owner after it was deemed to have shown "unreasonable behaviour" by refusing plans for a drive-thru.

Harrogate Borough Council will pay EG Group's legal costs after plans to develop a site in Wetherby Road were given the green light on appeal.

Councillors rejected the application despite being recommended for approval.

However, EG Group won permission from a government planning inspector after the council chose not to contest the case.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the firm originally applied to build a Starbucks on the site of the former 1st Dental Surgery but were refused.

That decision was upheld by the planning inspector in 2018 who ruled the site would cause "unacceptable" harm to those living nearby, with residents claiming it would "completely destroy" their enjoyment of their homes and that traffic in the area was already at "breaking point".

EG then put forward plans to build a Leon drive-thru, which were also initially rejected, before being overturned on appeal in June.

A council spokesperson said in a statement that officer recommendations are "always taken with a balanced approach" and that the council did not contest the appeal because it was unable to "substantiate the committee's grounds for refusal".

The spokesperson said: "The planning committee was therefore found to have acted unreasonably in taking this decision and the council is required to pay costs to the sum of £25,000."

The site, to open in May, will be the second Leon drive-thru in the country after the first opened in Leeds last November.

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