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27
Aug
Victoria Avenue’s £1 million upgrade described as ‘spectacularly bad value’
A cycling group has branded the council's £1 million upgrade of Harrogate’s Victoria Avenue as “spectacularly bad value”.
Road and zebra crossing markings were painted last night, which appears to mark the end of the long running saga.
Hedgehog Cycling, which promotes cycling in Yorkshire, and the campaign group Harrogate District Cycle Action both issued damning verdicts, claiming the schemes had used money earmarked for active travel on “routine maintenance”.
The new paving
Both described the early release cycle signals at both ends of the street, and the upgraded pedestrian crossing as “small improvements”.
But they said ambitious initial cycling plans had been scrapped. Hedgehog Cycling said:
We ended up with, in effect, two light-controlled pedestrian crossings for £1 million, which is spectacularly bad value.
An awful lot of contractor time was spent on changing the paving stones on the pavement, which is ‘prettifying the status quo’ and really should be a routine maintenance job.
The Stray Ferret has contacted North Yorkshire Council for a response.
The zebra crossing before work was carried out.
A five-year saga
Victoria Avenue was regarded as a key part of a segregated cycle route from the train and bus stations to Cardale Park.
The former North Yorkshire County Council was awarded £1,011,750 from the second round of the government’s active travel fund in 2020.
The sum was allocated to four cycling improvement schemes.
• A59 Maple Close Harrogate to Knaresborough (£250,000)
• Victoria Avenue, Harrogate (£250,000)
• Guisborough Road, Whitby (£250,000)
• Oatlands Drive, Harrogate (£261,750)
The council spent £205,505 ‘developing schemes’, and last year the remaining £806,245 was reallocated solely to Victoria Avenue.
It devised a £1.57 million project for Victoria Avenue, which included a cycleway, with top-up funding from the fourth round of the government’s active travel fund.
But the government rejected its bid, which prompted the council to scrap the cycle route and come up with cheaper plans.
Plans to move the zebra crossing to directly in front of St Paul’s United Reformed Church were abandoned when the church pointed out there would be nowhere for undertakers or wedding cars to park.
Work was due to finish by July 14 but overran and an extra £280,000 was allocated for resurfacing. A council spokesperson said the resurfacing cost would be significantly lower than the budgeted sum but no final figure has been confirmed.
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