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16
Jan
One year on – what has happened to the Valley Gardens bike track?
Fourteen months ago, North Yorkshire Council mooted the idea of installing a bike track in Harrogate's Valley Gardens.
The council opened a six-week consultation on plans to replace the nine-hole pitch-and-putt course with a pump track.
Pump tracks are used by cyclists and scooter riders to navigate the natural bumps and bends in land to generate momentum.
The track, which the council said would cost £2,000 to install, would be free to use for people up to the age of 10.
It would be accessible all year round, unlike the golf course which closes during wet weather. The rest of the pitch-and-putt area would be returned to grassland.
In March last year, the council said the track could open as early as the following winter.
The council’s corporate director for environment, Karl Battersby, said at the time:
We are grateful for the helpful feedback and the support for the project from the public. The intention is that once the summer season is over, we will be taking the project forward and looking to have it in place over the winter.
Nothing appears to have happened on the project since then so the Stray Ferret asked the council for an update, including whether the scheme is still going ahead and, if so, whether the pitch and putt course would be removed.
Cllr Keane Duncan, the Conservative executive member for highways and transport, said:
We are grateful to everyone who took part and gave us their views on the proposals for this improvement to the Valley Gardens.
No formal decision has been made, but we hope to be able to give an update by spring this year.
Pump tracks are designed to encourage movement with minimal pedalling. They have been described as being like a small rollercoaster for BMX riders.
They are particularly popular with younger cyclists.
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