Campaigners pursue legal action over planning permission for activity centre

A campaign group has threatened legal action over the conversion of North Yorkshire’s former police headquarters into a children’s activity holiday centre.

Newby Wiske Hall is a grade II* listed 17th century building near Northallerton that was used by North Yorkshire Police from 1976 until it sold the building last year to holiday company PGL.

Hambleton District Council gave planning consent to convert the premises.

PGL’s website stated that Newby Wiske would reopen later this year and offer “an impressive activity centre for schools and groups [with] an exciting range of adventure activities in the grounds, classrooms, a sports hall, as well as en suite rooms for pupils and single en suites for teachers”.

The Newby Wiske Hall Action Group has said that it has secured a barrister’s opinion that the site was unsuitable for this use being in a village.

A report in The Darlington & Stockton Times stated that there could be three grounds for judicial review: whether the planning officer report significantly misled the planning committee; whether enough importance was placed on the heritage of the hall and grounds; and non-disclosure of documents about noise levels.

A Hambleton spokeswoman said: “This issue is currently being considered by the council’s lawyers so it would not be appropriate to  make any statement at this time.”

Mark Smulian