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13

Sept 2021

Last Updated: 13/09/2021
Transport
Transport

Council to debate petition to lift Harrogate's Beech Grove closure

by Calvin Robinson

| 13 Sept, 2021
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The 770-signature petition calls for experimental measures to encourage cycling and walking on Beech Grove to be scrapped.

beech-grove-harrogate

A 770-signature petition calling for Harrogate’s first low traffic neighbourhood to be removed is to be debated by councillors this week.

Members of North Yorkshire County Council's Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee will meet on Thursday to discuss the traffic restrictions.

They were introduced in February and have proved popular with pedestrians and cyclists but caused complaints from some locals.

The trial restrictions have seen planters placed on Beech Grove to stop through traffic and create quieter streets where residents feel safer walking and cycling.

It has made getting around the area by car more difficult and that is the idea behind it – to decrease car use.

David Pickering is one of the 770 residents who have signed the petition against the restrictions, which he said have only made traffic worse on surrounding streets.

He said: 

“I continue to be surprised by the enthusiasm of North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council to spend taxpayers’ money on projects which are universally unpopular with local residents.
“It is all very well for public sector employees to sit around examining ways of maintaining budgets and tinkering with local roads to divert traffic when it has no material impact whatsoever on their personal lives.
“But on the ground it will concentrate traffic down certain roads.
“Anyone with a modicum of common sense would be able to work out that it will just concentrate traffic on Cold Bath Road and Queens Road.
“I just don’t see the point of the initiative.”


The low traffic neighbourhood was introduced by highways authority North Yorkshire County Council and received the strong backing of Harrogate Borough Council.



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Last month, the county council ended a public consultation on the restrictions ahead of a decision on whether to extend the 18-month trial, make the road changes permanent or scrap them altogether.

Barriers on Victoria Road


Last month the county council also announced plans to introduce a one-way traffic filter on nearby Victoria Road in another trial to improve road safety and encourage cycling and walking.

These restrictions will be trialled from this month and involve erecting a barrier to prevent vehicles from leaving to join Otley Road.

Mr Pickering said many residents were also against these plans, which he fears will make traffic “unbearable” on nearby Queens Road and Cold Bath Road.

The county council was contacted for comment but did not respond by the time of publication.