A THREE-YEAR-OLD plan to build a new service station on the edge of York has been resurrected by developers.
Enita Europe have put in a planning application for a “signed Trunk Road Service Area (TRSA)” next to the Hopgrove roundabout.
Plans show it would consist of a petrol station, a 50 bedroom hotel and a restaurant/ cafe, with parking and landscaping - the same as a 2014 scheme that was criticised by planners and then withdrawn by Enita.
The planning application says a new service station is needed on that stretch of the A64, “a key transport route in the North of England”.
The application would see a triangle of land between the A64 the outer ring road and Old Malton Road built on, with access on to Old Malton Road.
In July 2014 planning officials said the plans were “inappropriate within the Green Belt” and would bring “unacceptable harm” to the area. They also raised fears about the impact on people living nearby, said it would be at a high risk of flooding, and said wildlife would be harmed, and a sewage treatment plant on the site could leak and infect the water table.
In the fresh application, the developers say their plans benefit local transport infrastructure, something that is permitted within the Green Belt.
There is currently a 40 mile gap between service stations on the A64, they add, and no other suitable sites.
They also point out that York’s Local Plan is incomplete, and say noise and light pollution, and harm to wildlife would be minor; while economic benefits would be significant.
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