The £14.6 million Harrogate Station Gateway scheme, which will transform the area around the bus and train stations, is due to begin this summer.

Councillor Malcolm Taylor, the Conservative highways chief at North Yorkshire Council, revealed the date ahead of a full council meeting in Northallerton on May 20.

In the first update since the unsuccessful legal challenge to halt the scheme by the Get Away campaign group of Harrogate businesses and residents, Cllr Taylor said:

Immediately after the judgment, Get Away said it would apply to the Supreme Court to appeal.

But it has remained silent since and declined to comment today on Cllr Taylor’s comments, which were included in his quarterly update report to councillors that you can read here (the report also covers issues such as the latest on the new lane rental roadworks scheme).

The gateway will see Station Parade relandscaped, with the tempietto destroyed, a 36-metre bus lane and a cycle lane created on Station Parade and One Arch pedestrian tunnel improved.

Cllr Taylor has said the gateway scheme has “broad support in the town” even though council consultations discovered more people opposed it than supported it. You can vote in our poll here.

Businesses will be concerned about the prospect of disruption in the run-up to Christmas and there are also fears the scheme will continue to spiral over budget.

Rising costs

The government’s Transforming Cities Fund awarded £38.27 million for gateway schemes in Harrogate, Selby and Skipton to improve sustainable town centre transport in March 2020.

However, the cost has increased to £54.4 million and all three projects have been reduced in scale, or ‘descoped’ as the council calls it.

The cost of the Harrogate gateway has almost doubled from £7.9 million in 2021 to £14.6 million.

The Skipton project has been completed and Cllr Taylor said on Monday (May 11) work in Selby to regenerate the area around the train station at a cost of £32 million was “ready to begin” this month.

The council has awarded Galliford Try the contract for Selby but dropped the construction firm in favour of its own in-house company NY Highways for Harrogate.

Last year, the Stray Ferret revealed just £4.8 million of the cost of the Harrogate scheme, which stood at £12.55 million at the time, would be spent on construction and £2.7 million had gone to consultants.

York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority subsequently awarded £2 million, taking the overall sum to £14.6 million.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which received the original funding for the three gateway schemes from the Department for Transport, and York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, have yet to release funding to North Yorkshire Council.

That appears to be the final hurdle before work can start.

Have you voted in our poll on whether the gateway should go ahead? You can do so here.