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10
Jan 2023
Council leader faces call to drop £11.2m Harrogate Station Gateway if public oppose it
The leader of North Yorkshire County Council has faced a call to drop Harrogate’s Station Gateway project if the results of a consultation this week reveal public opposition.
Cllr Carl Les and council chief executive Richard Flinton spoke to business leaders at a Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce meeting at Rudding Park last night.
After a presentation by Mr Flinton about the new North Yorkshire Council, the two answered questions from the audience when the topic of the Station Gateway came up.
The £11.2 million project has been in development for three years after funding was won from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund.
It aims to make the town centre more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians and has been welcomed by those who want more active travel in the town. But some aspects of the scheme, such as reducing Station Parade to single-lane traffic and a part-pedestrianisation of James Street have proved to be unpopular with some business owners.
The results of a third round of consultation were expected to be published before Christmas but were delayed after the council received over 5,000 individual comments. Mr Flinton told the meeting the results of the consultation will be published in a report on Friday.
Drawing some gasps from the audience, the chamber’s chief executive, David Simister, asked Cllr Les if the council would drop the project should a majority of those who took part in the consultation oppose it.
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In response, Cllr Les said:
If the report is approved by the council executive, it will be discussed at a Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee meeting in spring before the Conservative council's executive makes a final decision in June.
Cllr Les suggested the opinions of councillors sitting on the area committee, which has a majority of Liberal Democrats, could be influential in deciding whether the project goes ahead. He said:
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