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Nov 2020

Last Updated: 25/11/2020

Environment

Housing Investigation: 26,500 more cars on the district's roads

by Thomas Barrett

| 26 Nov, 2020

If every home in Harrogate district’s Local Plan is built there could be an extra 26,500 cars on Harrogate’s already gridlocked roads, analysis from the Stray Ferret has found. For some businesses congestion on the district’s roads has already reached crisis point.

If every home in Harrogate district’s Local Plan is built there could be an extra 26,500 cars on Harrogate’s already gridlocked roads, analysis from the Stray Ferret has found.

Many feel congestion on the district’s roads has already reached crisis point:

Phil’s story

Phil I’Anson owns HG Heat in Harrogate and services boilers across the district. He told the Stray Ferret that in ordinary times traffic is crippling his business and could force him to relocate from Harrogate, which has been his home all his life.

Mr I’Anson said traffic has “gone crazy” in the four years since he set up his business, and it’s having a significant impact on his company’s bottom line.

“I spend approximately two to three hours a day in traffic in Harrogate. It costs me one or two jobs a day. That’s £150 a day and 20% of my earning capability.”

He said that it appears to him that neither HBC nor NYCC “has any control” over the congestion. “The builders seem to just do whatever they want,” he said.

Mr I’Anson also said that the impact of facing Harrogate’s traffic day after day is affecting his mental health.

“The most stressful thing I do isn’t running my company, it’s the traffic and driving around Harrogate. The work I can handle, but the traffic is what is stressful.”

And Mr I'Anson is not alone in his concern.

No strategic approach

Because Harrogate was unable to control where houses were built, it’s led to particular pressure points such as Skipton Road, where traffic regularly grinds to a standstill throughout the day.

At the time of writing, there are 15 new housing developments at various stages of construction in Harrogate, with trucks buzzing in and out transporting building materials from outside the district.

In October residents in the Whinney Lane area submitted their objections to a 270 house development to HBC- every resident cited traffic as a major concern:

"the road infrastructure in the area is already woefully inadequate to accommodate this and other existing new developments.."

"Whinney Lane and Lady Lane are country roads which are not capable of supporting additional traffic of at least 270 homes"

"traffic assessments cannot be viewed simply in terms of the increased traffic from a single proposal without looking at the cumulative impact of several developments in the area"

And it's this cumulative impact that is causing serious problems for businesses like Mr I’Anson’s.

“I’ll move out of Harrogate. It’s just crazy. It’s spoiling the town for me.

“We haven't got the infrastructure to keep building the houses they are building. At some point, it will become just gridlock but I’ll be gone by then hopefully. Where does it end?”

Harrogate’s gridlocked future?

Our figure of 26,500 extra cars comes from a North Yorkshire County Council formula.

The authority controls roads in the Harrogate district and asks each developer to include a set number of car parking spaces for every home they build.

For a one- or two-bedroom home, the minimum requirement is one space, but for three bedrooms and over it’s two spaces.

We analysed the number of bedrooms in different housing developments across the district to project a total figure of 26,500.

The real figure could be higher- according to a 2018 report by North Yorkshire County Council. 33,000 people who currently live in Harrogate and Knaresborough fall into the top 10% wealthiest people in the UK, which is almost a third of all people living in the two towns.

A government survey of household car ownership by income group found that 26% of people in this financial bracket own three or more cars, with more than 43% owning two.

As developers aim to maximise profits and build large homes to target high earners, those new owners will inevitably arrive with more cars.

Public transport

Public transport could hold the key to unlocking Harrogate’s congestion problems. However, according to NYCC’s congestion survey last year, just 6% of regular commuters in Harrogate will get the bus.

While some areas of the district, such as Killinghall, parts of Knaresborough and Ripon, are well served by Transdev buses, there are other pockets where housing is planned that have inadequate, or non-existent, bus services.

Kingsley Road is one of Harrogate’s main pressure points for new housing, with more than 600 homes mooted for development in the Local Plan, yet the nearest bus stop is half a mile away on Knaresborough Road. The furthest reaches of the planned development will be almost a mile away from the nearest bus stop.

Then there is the 600-home Manse Farm development on York Road, Knaresborough, which is served by the number 21 bus into the town centre, but it only stops nearby every hour and 40 minutes – and doesn’t run at all on a Sunday or after 5.15pm.

The 125-home Harlow Hill Grange development near Beckwithshaw, meanwhile, is not served by any bus routes. The number 6, into central Harrogate, has its closest stop more than half a mile away, up a steep section of Otley Road.

The half-hourly service stops running at 7pm on weeknights and Saturdays. On Sundays, an hourly service runs until just after 6pm.

For an elderly couple wanting to do a small shop in town, or a family going out for a meal, easy access to a frequent bus service at the right time could be the difference between using a car and not.

Accepted congestion problems

For Harrogate’s cycling community, the key to unlocking congestion is on two wheels.

Recently the government awarded NYCC £1million pounds to create additional cycle routes and walkways. But the construction of bespoke cycle routes (such as the one on Otley Road) has been painfully slow. Unless there is a rapid expansion of cycle routes in the next few years, many new home owners will be wedded to their cars.

According to North Yorkshire County Council’s congestion survey, the average car journey in the town is less than 1.6 miles.

But since NYCC scrapped plans for a controversial “relief road” through the Nidd Gorge, there has been little progress in tackling congestion around Harrogate. It means any roadworks such as the recent ones on Skipton road can bring the system to a standstill.

For many one of the very few joys of lockdown is how quiet the road network has been and the ease of moving around the district.

As normality returns next year Phil l'Anson and others like him will have to decide if the roads have become so congested he is forced to work elsewhere.

Tomorrow: in the final part of our housing series we'll be looking at the environmental impact and sustainability of the new developments.

If you want to get in touch with us about any aspect of this series please email us: contact@thestrayferret.co.uk