Two firms are in the running to carry out the Harrogate Station Gateway project, North Yorkshire Council has said.

The £12.1 million scheme, which includes creating a cycle lane on Station Parade and a bus lane on Lower Station Parade, will be Harrogate’s biggest town centre redevelopment for 30 years. Work is due to begin in spring.

Last year the council hired British construction firm Galliford Try, which has 3,300 staff and undertaken projects such as the £350 million Queensferry Crossing in Scotland, to undertake design work. Galliford Try's revenue grew by 27% to £1,772.8 million in the year ending June 30, 2024.

But the council said in September it had inserted a clause into the contract that allowed it to appoint a different delivery partner, and it was considering recruiting its own firm NY Highways.

NY Highways, which the council created in 2021, has 250 staff and has never undertaken a project of this scale.

Concerns about the council effectively paying itself to carry out the work by appointing NY Highways, and the risk this could put on taxpayers if costs rise, were raised at a Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce meeting two months ago.

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Councillor Keane Duncan, the council’s executive member for highways, is due to give a gateway update at a full council meeting on Wednesday next week.

The Harrogate scheme is one of three gateway projects North Yorkshire Council is pursuing using funding from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund to improve town centres.

In a report ahead of the meeting, Cllr Duncan said it had already slected NY Highways for one of the schemes. He said:

The Stray Ferret asked the council whether NY Highways was still in the running for Harrogate. A council spokesperson replied: