Stray Ferret Readers, Author at The Stray Ferret

Stray Views: How long before there is an apology for Station Gateway?

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

So, Sheffield City Council is sorry that its residents were “misrepresented as unrepresentative and primarily concerned with their own streets” (Sheffield Council issues apology over tree-felling scandal, The Guardian, 20 June).

How long, I wonder, before Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire Council apologise for ignoring the representations from Harrogate residents and business community for going ahead with the Station Gateway Project and its anticipated devastation of our beautiful spa town.

Val Michie, Low Harrogate

Trees on Empress roundabout a hazard

I’m writing a letter regarding the greenery in the middle of the Empress roundabout. How on earth are drivers supposed to see what’s coming from across the Stray with a full leaved tree (or is it two trees) blocking their view.

From experience when I was a driver, I know just how difficult and dangerous trying to get across the roundabout can be. Have the council gone mad?

Will they finally act to take away the trees in the centre if and when (God forbid) someone is seriously hurt in an accident simply because they couldn’t see what was coming from all sides of the roundabout? It is simply ludicrous?

Carole Nowell, Harrogate

Local government a mess long before devolution

Sir,
Lord Wallace of Saltaire claims that devolution in North Yorkshire has made local government an incoherent mess and destroyed local democracy. His words must have a hollow ring in towns and villages which were placed under Harrogate’s thumb in the last local government reorganisation dreamt up by some genius in Whitehall fifty years ago.
Where was local democracy when Harrogate’s recent Town Plan re-designated parts of the supposedly sacrosanct Green Belt between Harrogate and Knaresborough to accommodate illicit Traveller sites despite massive opposition from the people of Calcutt and close environs ?
Where is the coherence in the massive house building around Knaresborough, and indeed Harrogate itself, with no expansion of amenities other than the odd supermarket and the corresponding increase in commuter traffic being dumped onto already congested roads ?
As for the fantasy of Maltkiln, a sustainable village, it is the environmentally damaging creation of yet more commuting built around an antiquated railway and an inadequate main road and opens the way to further destruction of North Yorkshire’s green and pleasant land.
How can North Yorkshire do worse ? Heaven help us if it can.

Pete Dennis, Knaresborough

Stray Views: Stranded in Leeds thanks to shambolic trains

For my 72nd birthday, my son purchased tickets for us to attend a T20 game at Headingley on June 22.

Having consulted the timetable we found we had two options for our homeward journey to Knaresborough: the 21.34 train from Burley Park to Knaresborough or the 22.44 train from Burley Park to Harrogate.

For some strange reason only known to Northern, the 22.44 service terminates at Harrogate. Why?

To resolve this issue we decided for our outward journey we would drive to Hornbeam Park Station, park up and then get the train to Burley Park Station.

During the Yorkshire Vikings innings (they batted second), luckily my son checked on his phone and found that both of the trains we could have got home had been cancelled.

Stranded in Leeds. Car at Hornbeam Station. Possible £40/£50 taxi back to Hornbeam.

A solution was an earlier train home that hadn’t been cancelled at 20.34, which would mean missing the last hour of the game. The problem was the train departed in 10 minutes.

At 72 years of age, running to catch a train is not much fun but we made it.

How many people attending this event got stranded in Leeds by Northern Rail? I can see why they have had their franchise taken over by the government.

Did any other readers get caught out by this pathetic excuse of a train company?

They completely ruined our day out and we missed a very exciting end to the game.

Robbie Payne, Knaresborough

Boy racers at Conyngham Hall

Malcolm Wood’s letter on the A59 Badger Hill race track caught my attention. It isn’t the only race track which is a noise nuisance.

There is a big problem in Conyngham Hall car park in Knaresborough. Each evening it becomes a mecca for anyone with a souped-up engine/exhaust. They start at one end of the car park, rev up, backfire, then race to the other end where handbrake circles, skidding and revving are performed.

This happens well up to and sometimes beyond 11pm. It’s not a recent thing, it’s been happening for at least three years, together with drug usage, drinking parties and fire lighting. The police have been informed and a crime number issued, but do we see any action from them or the council — what do you think?

Jean Butterfield, Knaresborough

Bond End also a race track

I am in absolute agreement with Malcolm Wood’s letter of June 16 about speeding in Knaresborough at Badger Hill. It is a problem on Bond End too.

Noisy, modified cars and motorbikes use Bond End as a slingshot before breaking the speed limit on the dual carriageway of Harrogate Road, from Mother Shipton’s towards the golf club. This has been ongoing since spring.

The beginning of this area has a lot of pedestrians. Alas, a police presence, acting as enforcement and deterrence, is absent.

Dr. David Oldman, Knaresborough

And so is York Place…

I can concur with Malcolm Woods regarding boy racers. I live on Iles Lane, I walk my dogs every night and I can say that boy racers race in town up York Place through the High Street nearly every night between 9.30pm and 10.30pm. No police visible

Maggie Boyd , Knaresborough

Full marks for promptness to local politician

I have no political allegiance or affiliation, but when I raised an issue concerning his ward, Matt Walker responded almost immediately. This was even though his contact page on the council website said he was on holiday at the time. Full marks, and good luck, sir!

Colin Harrison, Knaresborough

Station Gateway: we expect better from councillors

A couple of issues in particular discussed by councillors at the area constituency committee meeting on June 8 should be raised.

1 THE PETITION

A Conservative member attending this meeting queried the petition’s veracity, saying its signatories included people from as far away as South Africa. According to people who are more computer literate than I am, it is reportedly an anomaly where the IP address of people’s computers shows up on the petition rather than their postal address. So I have been told, it occurs when a virtual private network is used to provide additional security and privacy rather than that afforded by the normal internet connection.

For example, two people I know who certainly live in Harrogate had their addresses displayed on the petition as Sunderland. It therefore seems to confirm that the councillor who announced in a sarcastic manner at the North Yorkshire Council executive meeting that he had rigorously checked the petition and that it proved nothing as at least 20% of the signatories lived outside the Harrogate area was quite wrong.

Surely there must be some way in which these misleading discrepancies, fabrications and exaggerations can be taken into account as they were extremely misleading. I find it hard to comprehend the technology wizards at the council have not come across this anomaly before.

2 INTERPRETATION OF THE PETITION

Another Conservative member attending the meeting pointed out even 500 local signatures, the threshold needed to have the petition debated by the committee, were not representative of all views from local residents. Just over two years ago quite extensive coverage was given in the local media of the survey results following public consultation on the gateway project including the pedestrianisation of James Street.

A report commissioned by North Yorkshire County Council claimed the gateway project still had more supporters than detractors. I understand the overall population of Harrogate at the time was in the region of 75,000 residents, from which there were some 1,101 respondents to the online survey. This equates approximately to 1.5% of Harrogate town’s total population – some 45% of the 1,101 participants voted in favour of this proposal or in real terms somewhere in the region of 0.75% of Harrogate’s population.

So, if you adopt this councillor’s theory, it is less representative of all the views from local residents even though at the time Cllr Phil Ireland from the then Harrogate Borough Council claimed “we have EVERYBODY’S feedback and ideas to feed into the next phase of detailed design work”. And yet, they dare to trash the recent petition which reached over 2,000 signatures and continues to increase.

We do not expect this standard of behaviour form councillors who were elected to represent us the residents of Harrogate and a public apology on both issues would be appropriate.

The simple fact that the signatories to the petition may not be representative of all views from local residents rests firmly in the lap of the council. It is quite disturbing to find out even now how many local residents and businesses still have not heard of or do not know what the station gateway involves. Whilst I appreciate it will always be a problem to ensure everyone is aware, I believe the council and the highways team in particular has a history of poor consultation, ignoring the democratic process; not listening and dismissive of public comment, and hiding behind a meaningless excess of words in press releases. If only they had involved us much earlier in the democratic process more of us would have shared in ownership of a gateway project.

Barry Adams, Harrogate

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

Stray Views: Drivers use Badger Hill as ‘speed track’

I live on Badger Hill and have contacted the council about this road. It is now a speed track by the idiot drivers among us.

They use the bridge like a sling shot and accelerate to go up the hill.

The road markings have disappeared, which enable many to cut the corner, which makes our 180 turn to enter Badger Hill scary.

Of course drivers know there is no chance of being caught as the police seem non-existent.

Malcolm Wood, Knaresborough

Bypass project rejected due to ‘misinformation’

The bypass project was rejected by the public as it was called the Nidd Gorge Project and photos of Nidd Gorge were shown in the local newspaper and political documents.

The road was not planned to be built in the gorge but this misinformation influenced the vote.

With this rejection and no alternative route being planned we now have a build up of traffic through Knaresborough and Scotton. What route can the new residents of Killinghall, etc. take to the A1(M) and York?

I also cannot see how blocking off a road assists congestion or helps to get traffic from the A1(M) to Skipton and vice versa.

We now prefer to shop in Northallerton where new roads have been opened recently, by the same councillor who is managing the closure of streets in Harrogate.

Pam Watson, Harrogate

Stray Views: Yorkshire Water ‘sorry they got caught’

How insulting it is that Yorkshire Water blame a shift in “expectations” for their failure to maintain clean and healthy water?

What they meant to say was, “the public have finally cottoned on to the fact that most water companies in the UK are doing an inadequate job of protecting this precious resource and the natural biodiversity that makes the British countryside so very special”.

It sounds like the cliche: you’re not really sorry. You’re just sorry you got caught.

Mark Fuller, Harrogate

Harrogate is ‘dying slowly’

Why are we not talking about the closure of shopping businesses and the lack of keeping retail businesses and putting in place a Wilkinsons or a Home Bargains. Places people want to shop at.

Also the lack of entertainment, there’s no bowling or crazy golf. There is nothing fun to do except for drinking and eating. There’s a cafe opening every week, a bar opening all the time but no real shopping opportunities. Empty retail shops are either going to be a bar or flats.

The council don’t want to do anything, they are just wanting money and that’s it. It’s okay saying go to Leeds, but it doesn’t help people when the trains are always on strike and the traffic is absolutely dreadful. This town is dying slowly.

Chris Firth, Harrogate

Different parties, different policies

Andrew Jones likes to say it’s ‘Yah boo politics’ when someone points out the massive problems created by his party’s policy.

Has Andrew heard that political parties have different policies? That is why there are different parties.

The Conservatives promote privatisation: Margaret Thatcher pushed for the privatisation of water, so England and Wales became the only countries in the world to have fully privatised water and sewage systems.

Tories believe that it’s OK for profits to be made from a basic service like water (or health, or energy, or transport, or education ). Greens don’t.

Tories also believe in removing ‘the red tape’ and ‘the green crap’ (removing regulation and sustainability considerations).

Well, now we are seeing the consequences of 13 years of Tory government.

Trumpeting that he is saving the Nidd is pure hypocrisy, when Mr Jones’s voting record supports privatisation and its dire consequences: including the destruction of nature and theft from the public purse.

He knows perfectly well that Greens would never have let the rivers get into this state in the first place, and we work full-time at all levels to right the wrongs created by his party’s short-sighted policies.

Shan Oakes, former Green Party European parliamentary and local candidate. Currently serving on Knaresborough Town and Scriven Parish Councils

Stray Views: Concern over potential accidents on Boroughbridge Road

As a long-term resident of the Boroughbridge Road area I am ‘pre-warning’ of a potential major accident in the stretch between Stockwell Road junction and Bar Lane Roundabout.

Forgive my ‘remembrance’ but the last time I consulted the Highway Code it stated that “bar special circumstances”, it is illegal to park within 10m of a junction.

There is a constant presence of vans, cars, trucks and 4WD monsters parked on Boroughbridge Road opposite to Somerley Lane, Norwood Court, Norwood Close and even Chain Lane.

Which means that traffic emerging from these roads has to take account of the fact that heavy traffic headed towards Boroughbridge has to divert to lane two to avoid the illegally parked traffic and the traffic heading Knaresborough bound has to both award the turning traffic and the oncoming traffic.

As a vast amount of this traffic is HGV and white vans, there will be a major disaster.

In any event parking on the pavement is also illegal. A good case for lots of yellow lines.

Maurice Johnson, Knaresborough

Motorbikes on the Greenway

Just a quick note to inform that there are now regular instances of motorbikes being ridden on these paths. We back onto the paths at the top end of Bilton Lane and almost daily hear and partially observe the mask-wearing so-and-so’s disregarding other users. Usually in small groups, particularly in the evening.

Would be useful to get this on the police radar before any person or pet are injured.

Richard Chester, Harrogate

Stray Views: Harrogate’s Victoria Avenue should be resurfaced entirely

Victoria Avenue needs the whole road resurfacing not just the potholes. There are many other roads that are in dire need of resurfacing but will miss out on necessary repairs.

Is there an agenda by Highways North Yorkshire to discourage motorists and cyclists from visiting Harrogate?

Maybe we can encourage Chinese investors to Harrogate, they have built many excellent roads all around the world.

Simon Kirby, Harrogate

Re-wilding should be more than ‘not bothering’

Re-wilding should not just be not bothering.

Much of the re-wilding on the edges of the Stray, with splashes of colour from such as buttercups, also manage to look good and purposeful.

The verges on Beech Grove with their proliferation of dandelions and docks, do not.

Chris Graville, Harrogate

Stray Views: Negative views about Station Gateway ‘outdated and unrealistic’

Last Sunday we published a selection of reader’s emails who were outraged that the Station Gateway proposals had been approved – in response we received emails in support of the plans.

Let there be one letter at least in support of this initiative.

Harrogate residents voted against a bypass and for schemes to reduce traffic congestion and support alternative methods of transport and walking.

Since then, vocal minorities have acted against any such innovation or suggestion (Beech Grove, Otley Road, Oatlands Drive etc. etc.).

Remember the long battle to establish cycling on a couple of Stray paths. Does anyone now think that was a bad idea? Plenty did at the time.

Remember how West Park Stray was ‘ruined for ever’ in 2019? It looks magnificent now.

It’s time to put more ideas into action to benefit us and the planet. The gateway has been discussed over and over so to discuss it further is pointless. There’ll never be a perfect scheme to suit everyone, but I believe genuine improvements will result.

Certainly the generations to come will not thank us if we keep doing nothing.

Peter Lawley Harrogate

As it looks likely that the Station Gateway will go ahead, isn’t the time now to plan for Park and Ride services to be made available on all main roads into the town?

Paul Smith, Knaresborough

Many of the negative views about the Station Gateway scheme are outdated and unrealistic.

Town centres are changing. They have to adapt. Retail as it once was is dying and it’s futile to pretend otherwise. People are increasingly shopping online, retail outlets are closing down, and empty units are often replaced by coffee shops. Why is that a bad thing? Coffee shops and cafes are more sociable in nature. It is far better that the space is used productively than an empty shell.

The other argument I’ve heard against the gateway project is that it will cause more traffic problems. Consider that Cheltenham Parade, part of the same route, is largely a single lane, until it fans out into two lanes approaching the traffic lights before the bus station. This is exactly the same arrangement as is being proposed at the traffic lights by the Everyman. The flows will remain the same.

It’s time to promote active travel and encourage people to walk, cycle or use public transport more, instead of relying on a car parking spot right outside a particular shop.

Harrogate isn’t going to wither away because it’s been nudged into being a place where it’s more pleasant to walk around.

Since when were exhaust fumes a contributor to our excellent spa town?

Stu Mitchell, Harrogate

I for one am very pleased with the decision made by the councillors. I think it will be a big improvement to the street scene and encourage people to come into what is otherwise an uninspiring town.

The democratic process is through councillors who your residents had a chance to vote for last year.

Your critic of the proposals who asked about the Ouseburn councillor voting must have been asleep for the last few years, because that’s how democracy works. We have an MP and government that do not represent my views, but we have to accept that.

Nigel Hunt

Stray Views: Station Gateway decision sparks outrage

The Stray Ferret Letters inbox has been dominated this week by correspondence regarding the decision to go ahead with Harrogate’s Station Gateway proposal. Here are excerpts from some of the emails we have received.

It beggars belief that even after so many negative comments /opposing opinions from local residents and established businesses, the gateway proposal should be given the go ahead to proceed. .. To endorse such a plan clearly paints those with authoritative clout as having no real knowledge of the consequences this proposal will have on the impact of vehicles through our town centre.

Steve Allcock

What kind of a democratic system do we have in Harrogate? When the residents from Granville Road Area Group have not been allowed a Public Meeting with regards to ‘The Gateway Scheme’ before the scheme was passed.

However, we will now be allowed one after they were passed last Friday 5 of May.

Surely in the scoping and screening phases of a major project such as the Gateway, this community of people should have been consulted directly by the planners. Which one would have thought included a ‘Public Meeting’ at the start, not at the end of such a major scheme and plans from NYCC. Has this really happened? Or are we just actors playing a part in a film set for NYC. [North Yorkshire Council].

Isn’t it a bit late in the day to consult residents and their concerns? Is this even acceptable or legal in any democratic process for a Public Consultation?

What is even more concerning is that some of the elected Councillors who have either dismissed this or are perhaps are just not concerned with the people that voted for them.

Rachael Inchboard

I am dismayed that the councillors did not look at the scheme with an open mind and with a view that is relevant to the area. How can a councillor who does not live in the town (Ouseburn), have a say on a scheme that will not affect home in the slightest?

If the wonderful brains that voted this scheme through are so confident that the impact will be negligible, before they put it to the main council, they should put cones along Cheltenham Parade and Station Parade where the single car that will run and then get an independent monitor to look at traffic flows and where congestion occurs.

They should also count the number of cyclists in and around the town centre to see how much money they are spending per cyclist. As someone who drives around Harrogate for a living, the number of cyclists is minimal. Anyone who wants to ride a cycle will already be doing so, so the potential for a huge increase in active cyclists again, will be minimal.

No thought has been given to taxis or private vehicles ferrying around elderly or those with mobility issues or sight impaired.

Please do not waste money for a negative impact on our town!

Rob Young

The biggest mistake of all. One day they will realise. The town is a Ghost Town with more empty shops than nice open ones. Cambridge street and the old market with shops round the outside were busy everyday. Parking is too expensive. Not easy to park and step onto the pavement and pop to buy something.

One Lane is a total disaster – no one will bother with town. PLEASE BRING BACK OUR BEAUTIFUL SPA TOWN.

Anita White

Stray Views: ‘Shame’ on councillors who approved Station Gateway

Congratulations to all the councillors who voted to pass the Station Gateway plans — you have just killed off a large quantity of small businesses in the town.

It’s about time your salaries and pensions were docked at the same amount as these small business owners are going to lose.

Then you might start making the right commercial decisions. Shame on you.

Tony Cowan, Harrogate

Gateway is ‘a highway engineer’s-led solution’

I along with all those who spoke against the gateway project in its present form were extremely disappointed with the outcome but the support from the public gallery was encouraging.

We had all put a lot of time, thought and consideration into preparing our statements. This was the result of talking to others, local knowledge, professional experience and above all an understanding of how this town works – the skills which the executive and officers of North Yorkshire Council clearly still do not have.

There was nothing new in the North Yorkshire Council presentations and it was clearly a case of delivering the same old information that we have all heard so many times before but yesterday in a series of rather long, boring and bumbled presentations that did not inspire any of us.

It is still unfortunately purely a highway engineer’s-led solution. It is not capable of celebrating this as an exemplary and attractive gateway to the town simply because there was no mention of urban design (or an understanding of what makes places work). This is generated by a lack of awareness from those with limited understanding of Harrogate, its character and the largely cohesive Conservation Area it sits in.

Once again an attempt at a publicity exercise to justify the project but with more than a hint of desperation as threats emerged at the loss of funding or it being moved elsewhere.

All this was followed by councillors debating a decision which will have far reaching consequences on our town. Unfortunately, most of those present seemed to have little grasp of the actual mechanics of what will occur.

Sadly the project now has conditional support from the area constituency committee but does require North Yorkshire Council officers to work with residents and businesses to find the best use of the money.

Part of this should include discussions on the alternative scheme I handed to area constituency committee members. Cllr Keane Duncan did however point out there were time pressures to proceed with the project. Sadly as we all know the highways executive has a history of ignoring the democratic process, not listening and dismissive of public comment.

Time will definitely determine what happens next.

Barry Adams, Harrogate

Old trees are dangerous

I’ve just read your article reference the crushed Porsche.

I’m not sure what the council’s tree and woodlands policy is but Harrogate has thousands of very mature trees requiring radical maintenance to reduce various risks to pedestrians, motorists and subsurface infrastructure alike.

Mike Hodgson, Harrogate

Stray Views: Time for councillors to back Harrogate Station Gateway

As a former Harrogate town centre shop owner for 30 years, I was hugely disappointed to read Cllr Mike Schofield says he will not vote for Station Gateway because it ‘may’ be bad for business. In my view he couldn’t be more wrong. He and any councillors who are considering voting to dump this £11m investment in the town centre on similar flimsy grounds would be doing the town the very greatest disservice.

Cllr Schofield is quoted as saying Station Gateway ‘may potentially deal businesses another blow’ on top of covid and the cost of living crisis. He gives no evidence to back his claim.

Along with many others in Harrogate I am confident it will in fact benefit business. It’s true that many local businesses are noisily opposing it. It was the same in the 1980s when Cambridge, Oxford and Beulah streets were pedestrianised. A chorus of local business owners said it would be a disaster. It wasn’t. As the owner of a sports shop in Beulah Street I supported the changes. I thought they would be good for my business and they were. Our business increased appreciably because footfall increased. It also created a considerably more pleasant environment for our staff to work in – quieter and cleaner.

If the councillors reject Gateway they won’t lose ‘just’ the £10.9m for this scheme, they jeopardise much, much more in future funding. North Yorkshire has a lengthening and shocking record of failing to deliver on active travel in Harrogate – Otley Road, Beech Grove, Victoria Avenue, A59 at Knaresborough, Oatlands Drive, the Wetherby Road/Slingsby Walk crossing, declining bus services, no valuable cycle infrastructure since the Showground Greenway in 2014.

Why should the government offer more funding to an authority with such a dismal track record of failure to deliver? The Gateway is the last chance to restore credibility. But it seems some councillors are ready to dump it because they hear some noisy local business people say it ‘might be bad for business’. I’ll repeat – what’s the evidence?

In fact the evidence, time and again, is that making streets people friendly rather than car friendly is good for business. The best known example is probably Waltham Forest. In 2015 there was huge opposition to their mini Holland scheme and the pedestrianisation of the main shopping street, Orford Road. Many businesses and residents said it would be the death of Walthamstow, and carried a coffin along the street in protest. In fact it has been a terrific success and recent polls show that over 98% of local people now support it.

There are many other examples of hostility to proposals to reduce road space and restrict traffic in town centres where the opposition disappeared once the changes had been introduced because people find they actually like them.

Cllr Schofield says there are better alternative designs which should have been considered. The time to put forward those designs was during the consultation. The situation now is the design that’s on the table – which was updated and improved during the consultation process – or nothing.

On Friday, councillors have an extremely rare opportunity to invest £11m to make much of the town centre fit for the 21st century. It’s most unlikely to come again any time soon. Let’s hope they have the good sense and courage to take it.

Malcom Margolis, Harrogate

Crimple Valley homes near ‘extremely dangerous road’

I have lived here for nearly sixty years and the Crimple Valley was once owned by The Earl of Harewood and before him King George 111 and purchased by Harrogate Borough Council as a buffer between Harrogate and the village of Pannal.

The Crimple Valley has always been a beautiful wildlife area.

Anyone brave or foolhardy enough to try to cross the A61 Leeds Road are taking their life in their hands. It is an extremely dangerous road and houses should definitely not be built there.

Over the years planning permission was refused for the existing building which was built with the intention of turning it into a house. Planning permission was refused. Planning permission for this development has been refused before by Harrogate Borough Council so the developers are now trying their luck with North Yorkshire Council and all objectors hope they do not succeed.

Anne Smith, Pannal

Trees on Empress roundabout a hazard

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Local government a mess long before devolution

Boy racers at Conyngham Hall

Bond End also a race track

And so is York Place…

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Full marks for promptness to local politician

Station Gateway: we expect better from councillors

Bypass project rejected due to ‘misinformation’

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Harrogate is ‘dying slowly’

Different parties, different policies

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Motorbikes on the Greenway

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Re-wilding should be more than ‘not bothering’

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Gateway is ‘a highway engineer’s-led solution’

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Old trees are dangerous

Crimple Valley homes near ‘extremely dangerous road’

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