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22
Aug
Fears of ‘horrendous’ Otley Road cycle path extension prompt calls for rethink
Fears that the planned extension of Harrogate’s Otley Road cycle path will repeat past mistakes have prompted calls for a rethink.
North Yorkshire Council revealed plans at a drop-in session last month to extend the path from Harlow Moor Road to Pot Bank at Beckwithshaw, and create a new route on Pannal Ash Road. You can read more about the plans here.
The plans were broadly welcomed by cyclists, but Harrogate Town Council gave a far more critical verdict when its planning and regulatory committee met on Wednesday (August 19) to consider its response to North Yorkshire Council.
Councillor Graham Dixon, a Liberal Democrat whose Harlow ward includes the cycle path, said the proposals weren’t “best practice” and the drop-in session was “not a consultation but a presentation of what’s going to happen”.
Cllr Dixon said plans for the cycle path from Pot Bank to Harlow Carr appeared sound, but “after that it becomes much more problematic” because of the road narrows and there are more bus stops and trees heading into Harrogate.
He said “not enough thought” had gone into how to best manage this space and expressed concerns of a repeat of the first phase of the Otley Road cycle route, from Harlow Moor Road to Cold Bath Road, which has been widely criticised for its zig-zagging design.
Cllr Dixon said:
If the same procedure is applied to what has been applied on the other part of Otley Road, then it is not going to be successful. It won’t be used and will have a further adverse effect on sustainable travel because people will perceive it as a waste of money.
Cllr Dixon said Harrogate mayor Cllr Viv Poskitt typified the attitude of many cyclists to the first phase:
Despite being a manic cyclist, she declines to use the Otley Road cycle path because it’s far safer to ride on the road.
The Otley Road cycle route.
He added:
The obvious route for this path is to forget about Otley Road completely and to arrive at Crag Lane and go into Snapdragon Way into the Pinewoods, construct a dedicated cycle path through the Pinewoods, with respect to the environment, and then come down through Valley Gardens — totally segregated and protected and a perfectly useable cycle path.
That would be better than trying to accommodate something which is inadequate, where there is just not the space for it.
'Come back to the table'
Fellow Lib Dem Cllr Josie Caven, who represents Kingsley, said not having a segregated cycle path sounded “horrendous”.
Cllr Elizabeth Jackson, a Conservative who represents Oatlands, said councillors “need to send a message that we don’t think it’s been thought through well enough”, adding:
Bearing in mind how poorly the Otley Road cycle path was received and how poorly it is currently used, we would encourage them to come back to the table.
The town council agreed to write to North Yorkshire Council saying it was not opposed to a cycle path, but it must be designed well to encourage use and not cause harm and there were concerns over how safe and effective the current plans are.
It added it would welcome further and detailed consultation that considered alternative locations.
North Yorkshire Council has not yet revealed how much the extension will cost, but has said it will be funded by housing developers and York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.
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