Wednesday 4th December. A meeting was held in Harrogate with Mark Codman, Legal & Governance Officer and Rachel Bowles, Corporate Affairs Director of HBC. The frank and detailed discussion centred on why HBC had refused the re-establishment of the ACV on the ‘eastern-annexe’ of the Henry Jenkins Inn. They gave us several reasons. a) They regarded this application as a ‘stand-alone’ so the evidences from previous applications which were referred to and referenced by the new application were not sufficient. b) In their opinion, there was not enough evidence that the ‘eastern-annexe’ had existed as a social facility prior to 1975. c) The time that had elapsed since the pub was last open serving the community now did not satisfy the criteria of ‘the recent past’ even though a large amount of that time was because Mr Fielder would not sell and allow the pub to open. The HJCP disputed the logic of all these decisions and were given to understand that another application can be made with fresh evidences provided to address the perceived shortcomings of this one.The HJCP are now preparing the groundwork for another new application
