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29
Dec 2023
No 6: Harrogate Station Gateway 'descoped' after legal flaws and political rows
In this article, which is part of a series on the 12 stories in the Harrogate district that shaped 2023, we look at the Harrogate Station Gateway saga in 2023.
The year 2023 was supposed to be the year when the Harrogate Station Gateway started to happen.
After years of talk, work would begin on reducing a section of Station Parade to single lane and James Street would be partly pedestrianised. But not a single shovel has entered the ground and the scheme remains mired in mess.
A meeting of North Yorkshire Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee was supposed to bring clarity in May.
Cllr Keane Duncan, the council’s Conservative executive member for transport, turned the heat up on the Liberal Democrat-controlled committee beforehand by warning the scheme would be dead if the committee didn't back it. The “majority of spend”, he added, must take place in 2023/24 budgets so there could be no delay.
Councillors voted 10-3 in favour, which paved the way for Cllr Duncan and the rest of the council’s ruling Conservative executive to press the go button. But the political consensus didn't last long. The Lib Dems quickly withdrew their support, claiming the council had not engaged in meaningful consultation as promised in May.
Cllr Keane Duncan talks about the Station Gateway to Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce.
They called on Cllr Duncan, who would later win the Conservative nomination to stand in next year's York and North Yorkshire mayoral election, to resign. He accused the Lib Dems of "weak and inconsistent leadership" and "playing games with the scheme".
Meanwhile, local property firm Hornbeam Park Developments, which owns some buildings on James Street, launched a judicial review to challenge the council’s decision making.
Lawyers claimed there were six grounds for challenge, including the council’s failure to hold a public inquiry before issuing traffic regulation orders for the scheme. In August, the council confirmed it had “quashed” its May decision to proceed with the gateway. It conceded:
A Harrogate District Cycle Action graphic showing the scrapped elements.
This prompted Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough MP, to say the gateway was a” timed-out dead scheme” and offer to intervene to help retain the funding locally.
But the council, which had previously insisted the scheme would be dead if it wasn't approved, ploughed on and began hastily assembling new proposals.
By November, they suggested public realm improvements to Station Square and One Arch, which is the foot tunnel under the railway at the bottom end of Station Parade, improved access into the bus station and linked sequencing of the traffic lights between the Ripon Road/King’s Road and the Station Parade/Victoria Avenue junctions. The possibility of a southbound segregated cycle lane on Station Parade, while retaining two lanes for motorised traffic, is also being explored.
The political wrangling continued when Lib Dem leader Cllr Pat Marsh accused Cllr Duncan of "pinching" their ideas.
The scheme is one of three worth £42 million being funded by the government’s Transforming Cities Fund to improve station gateways to town centres in Harrogate, Selby and Skipton.
Read more:
- Cyclists brand scaled-back Harrogate gateway plans a 'huge disappointmen'
- Councillors push ahead with scaled-back £11.2m Harrogate Station Gateway
- Council concedes it should have held public inquiry into Harrogate Station Gateway
By the end of the year all three had been "de-scoped" because "cost estimates have significantly increased during the detailed design development period", according to a council report.
The council was keen to gloss over questions about its handling of a scheme, and how it had breached public law by failing to issue traffic regulation orders — particularly as it had awarded £2 million to consultants for help.
Cyclists were frustrated by the loss of what was once hailed as a key project in establishing a secure route from the town centre to Cardale Park. The gateway lexicon had also changed from being about active travel to sustainable transport, suggesting it's more about better traffic lights than encouraging walking and cycling.
Councillors are expected to decide early in 2024 whether to accept the smaller Harrogate scheme — assuming the government lets the deadline slip. It appears smaller and less controversial than the original plans — but little about the gateway is ever straightforward.
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