Ripon resident in standoff with 'devious' council over posters pasted on his own home
North Yorkshire Council is in an ongoing standoff with a campaigner over posters protesting against Ripon Cathedral’s £8m annexe plans.
Stanley Mackintosh, who owns the property in Kirkgate, says he has a legal right to display the posters and is protected under freedom of speech. But the council says the posters constitute an advert and he does not have planning permission for them.
The posters are still there, months after the council first issued a notice demanding they were removed. But Mr Mackintosh claims there have been “numerous devious attempts” to remove them.
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As part of the controversial plans for the cathedral, 11 trees would be chopped down to make way for the new building. Mr Mackintosh lives a short walk from the cathedral and each day curious onlookers and tourists have stopped to look at them, which includes a cartoon depicting the Dean of Ripon holding a chainsaw.
North Yorkshire Council’s head of development management, Martin Grainger, said: “The boarding outside the property at Kirkgate, Ripon, has not been removed as requested. We are now considering taking formal action to require the removal of the boarding which constitutes an advert.”
Mr Mackintosh said: “None of the numerous devious attempts or threats to remove the public information display have had sustainable legal heft, so none have succeeded. As for the cathedral’s supposed justification for building a carbuncle annexe on our public park, that seems to be just magical thinking.”
North Yorkshire Council’s Skipton and Ripon planning committee is set to finally meet before the end of this year to make a decision on Ripon Cathedral’s plans. It will come as a relief for many in the city as the plans have proved to be divisive.
This year, the Cathedral held several consultation events regarding the annexe after it paused its planning application in January. It maintains the annexe is crucial to offer 21st-century facilities while safeguarding the future of its choir.
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