Latest News:  23 April 2008

Save Our Shire

thanks all our supporters for their continued support and interest over more than two-and-a half years.

The help and support we were given helped us to win the Judicial Review. 

Now read on . . .

The application for a development on Yorke Square still exists and, if the District Council chooses to do so, it can be re-activated and brought back to the Planning Committee at any time.

However, everything hinges on Tuesday 29^th April at 6.30 pm when the District Council will hold its next Full Council Meeting in public in Swale House, Richmond, and will make a final decision to withdraw the planning application for Yorke Square.

Come and join us at Swale House and listen to what the Council has to say.

Latest News:  23^rd March 2008

SAVE OUR SHIRE HAS WON ITS COURT CASE

AGAINST RICHMONDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL

The following letter was printed in the Darlington & Stockton Times on Friday, 21^st March 2008

Dear Sir

Save Our Shire has won its Court case against Richmondshire District Council: the High Court has formally overturned the planning permission for fourteen flats on Yorke Square Car Park, Richmond.  The Council has paid our legal costs as ordered by the Court. 

Now is the right time to thank all the organisations and individuals throughout Richmondshire and far beyond who supported our campaign over a period of more than two and a half years.  I am delighted to be able to congratulate them all on the legal outcome and to thank them for their patience in waiting for the legal decision.

This does not mean, however, that the threat of development is removed: the application for development on Yorke Square still exists and the District Council can bring it back to the Planning Committee at any time.  If it chooses to re-activate the plan to develop Yorke Square then, sadly, Save Our Shire will take immediate legal advice to oppose them by any means possible: our supporters would expect no less of us. 

However, a far wiser and more courageous outcome would be if members voted to leave the past behind and lead public opinion rather than continuing to punish it.  In other words, by retaining Yorke Square as a car park and refurbishing it, they would be investing in the future development of the riverside as a community resource and tourist attraction. The car park can contribute much to the economic viability of a town dependent upon visitors drawn by its culture and history, and to a riverside that it currently undergoing something of a renaissance. To achieve this Save Our Shire is willing to work with all the different political groups on the council. With a combination of goodwill and vision this should be attainable.

When all threat of development on Yorke Square is removed and our objective achieved, our preferred option would to invest the legal costs that we have recovered from the Council back into the refurbishment of Yorke Square.  Again, our supporters would expect no less of us.

The Court’s endorsement to overturn the planning permission does, therefore, provide an opportunity for all members of the Council to work together, and with the residents of Richmondshire, to safeguard the future use of Yorke Square as a car park and to reflect the wishes of the community.

John McDonald

Chairman, Save Our Shire

Richmond