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08
Jul
Combined authorities release funding for £14.6m Harrogate Station Gateway
Funding for the £14.6 million Harrogate Station Gateway scheme has been released, the county’s transport chief has confirmed.
Cllr Malcolm Taylor, executive councillor for highways at North Yorkshire Council, said work on the scheme was on track to begin this year.
The gateway, which aims to improve the areas around Harrogate’s rail and bus stations, has been hailed as the biggest transformation to Harrogate town centre for 30 years.
It will see short bus and cycle lanes created on Station Parade, the One Arch pedestrian tunnel improved and Station Square relandscaped with the tempietto destroyed.
However, the project has been criticised by local businesses and was subject to a failed legal challenge by the Get Away campaign group.
Station Parade is at the heart of the scheme.
In a statement due before a full council meeting on July 15, Cllr Taylor confirmed that both York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA) and West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) had released funding for the project at the end of June.
WYCA, which holds £11 million in funding for the gateway, had previously delayed its decision to release the money amid an ongoing legal challenge against the scheme.
Meanwhile, YNYCA holds £2 million in funding for the project.
Cllr Taylor added that initial work on the gateway will include utility diversions, which may start in the late summer or early August. He said:
Works will likely commence with utility diversions and we are working with the utility providers to co-ordinate activity to minimise disruption to the local road network.
The move to release the funding comes after the Court of Appeal ruled on a legal challenge against the project in March.
The anti-gateway campaign group Get Away, which is trying to halt the North Yorkshire Council scheme, lodged the challenge.
It claims the project would harm the town centre and waste public funds.
The group took the matter to the Court of Appeal after losing a judicial review in the High Court in August 2025.
However, judges dismissed the appeal in a judgment handed down on March 12.
At the time, Cllr Taylor said time and energy had been “wasted” defending the two legal challenges against the scheme.
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