AN “UNEXPECTEDLY redesignated tree” has caused the Dean and Chapter of Ripon Cathedral to spend hundreds of kilos on recent designs for its proposed annexe. The original project had attracted opposition from local people and heritage groups (News, 9 August).
Concern in regards to the potential lack of 12 trees — amongst them, a 200-year-old beech tree classified by the Woodland Trust as a Veteran Tree — and issues over the effect that the brand new constructing would have on the encompassing view resulted within the “pausing” of the project in January for further consultation.
Revised plans will now go before North Yorkshire Council’s planning committee next Tuesday (News, 30 August).
“The extra period of consultation was very fruitful, and really showed that 77 per cent of respondents were in favour of our original proposal,” a cathedral spokesperson said. “It was quite clear that folks were concerned that trees needed to be removed and the way close the constructing needed to be to the cathedral. We did wish to compromise, if possible, and save the veteran tree.”
Ripon CathedralThe recent designs, which incorporate the trees
The spokesperson continued: “The beauty of this [new] design is that it still provides all of the facilities that the cathedral desperately needs; it saves the veteran beech tree; and still delivers increased green open space, more trees, and greater biodiversity.”
The recent scheme is “a rather different shape, but still with its entrance near the cathedral”; the “amended proposal has cost tens of hundreds of kilos”.
A campaign, involving social media, to challenge the proposals has enlisted several high-profile individuals, including Dame Judi Dench, who was born in Yorkshire, and the previous Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams.
Expected to present Ripon “an economic boost of about £1 million a yr” and deliver “a Cathedral Quarter”, the multi-million-pound project — which has yet to be funded — could be “doing much to secure the long-term sustainability of the cathedral”, the spokesperson said.
“Our hope is that the compromise the Chapter has made will cause opponents to reconsider their position and have interaction faithfully with plans that supply a lot profit to town, cathedral, diocese, and region. The amended plans have been submitted, and we await a planning-committee decision.”
