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08
Dec 2022
£11.2m Harrogate Station Gateway scheme delayed for another year
The £11.9m Harrogate Station Gateway scheme has been delayed again and is now not due to start for another year.
In an update yesterday, Cllr Keane Duncan, North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for highways, said it remained "committed" to the controversial project.
But he added the council was still evaluating the results of the third round of consultation, which ended in August, and would ask Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors for their views before deciding whether to proceed.
Information attached to the summer consultation said it was "anticipated that construction would begin in winter 2022/3 for approximately 12 months".
The council is now, however, saying work will start in late 2023.
Cllr Keane Duncan
Cllr Duncan said:
Read more:
- Transport chief denies inflation will lead to 'cheap' Harrogate Station Gateway
- Final consultation event on Harrogate Gateway to be held online today
The Stray Ferret asked the council about the scheme as there had been no updates since the summer consultation and work was due to begin anytime now.
We also asked whether the threat of a judicial review, which was raised by the owner of Hornbeam Park this year, remained but Cllr Duncan's statement did not address this.
Latest delay in controversial saga
The Station Gateway was hailed as the “greatest investment in decades” in Harrogate town centre by Cllr Duncan's predecessor, Cllr Don Mackenzie, when funding was secured from the Department for Transport.
It would see part of James Street pedestrianised and part of Station Parade made single lane, as well as significant changes to the public realm near the Victoria monument.
How Station Parade would look
The government department had set a deadline of March 2023 for completion and work was due to have started in spring this year and last for a year.
But in January this year it was announced the scheme had been pushed back a year and now the same thin has happened again.
The project is one of three in North Yorkshire, and 39 nationally, being funded by the Department for Transport’s Transforming Cities Fund to promote active travel.
North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority all support the gateway.
It has divided opinion with supporters saying it would boost cycling and walking as well as modernise the area around the train station.
But critics argue it could increase traffic delays and disrupt town centre business.
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