Today we report on the growing frustration and noise among the cycle lobby which has campaigned in Harrogate for better cycling routes.
The pandemic has led to fewer cars on the road, cleaner air and a boom in bike sales. These factors have strengthened campaigner’s resolve who see now as the time to push for transformational change.
Around half a dozen cycling and environmental groups exist in the district. All pushing for improvements for cyclists and pressurising council leaders to deliver.
A lack of ambition, a need for more infrastructure and a sense of frustration were among the complaints from the groups the Stray Ferret spoke to, as promised schemes have yet to come to fruition.
Kevin Douglas, who chairs the Harrogate District Cycle Action group, said a lack of movement on any infrastructure has left cyclists disappointed.
He said: “It is frustrating. They did an excellent job in getting the funding but the delivery is the key.
“During the past five weeks, families and young people have been riding because the roads are quiet and they are doing it because it is safe.”
For others, lockdown has offered an extra boost to the message that more people want to cycle- a view which is backed up by research undertaken before the crisis.
In a survey by Andrew Jones MP last year, nearly half of residents who responded said the town’s cycling facilities were poor and needed to be improved.
Caroline Linford, founder of Sustainably Harrogate, said the town could improve its infrastructure after lockdown and called for more ambition from the county council.
She said that the lack of progress on Otley Road was indicative of the will of those in charge to deliver for the town.
She said: “I think for me what I would like to have seen is using it to make the town move again.”
“There is a lack of action and what I would like to see is some ambition from the county council.”
Tomorrow in our Focus on Cycling series we put the concerns of cycling campaigners to Don Mackenzie, the senior county councillor in charge of highways.
