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29

Sept 2020

Last Updated: 28/09/2020
Environment
Environment

West Park Stray -- 12 months of mud, repair and debate

by Connor Creaghan

| 29 Sept, 2020
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It is a year since the UCI Championships ended and West Park Stray was left severely damaged. We chart the past 12 months in pictures and the continuing debate over whether it is fully restored to its former glory...

https://youtu.be/L64pa32sYDs

This week marks one year since the end of the UCI World Championships and the serious damage to West Park Stray.

It has taken almost a year for it to turn green again. Harrogate Borough Council said as the repair works began that West Park Stray would "return to its former glory" - however the Stray Defence Association (SDA) has said it believes the work has not fully repaired the damage and said it remains "dangerous" with surface stones and ruts.

West Park Stray: A year at a glance



  • UCI World Championships - September 2019

  • West Park Stray pictured as a quagmire - October 2019

  • Partial recovery but problems remain - March 2020

  • Heavy machinery moves in to work - May 2020

  • Green shoots of hope - July 2020

  • West Park Stray opens to public after 316 days - August 2020

  • Debate rumbles on about West Park Stray - September 2020




When restrictions were lifted for the UCI Championships to be held, the council was given a legal duty to return the Stray to how it was before the event.

The council said it would spend £130,000 on the restoration and outsourced the work to Lancashire-based contractors Glendale Services.

Yorkshire 2019, the organisers of the UCI World Cycling Championships, agreed to pay £35,500 to help restore the Stray.