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07
Jul 2023
Station Gateway objectors 'from Australia' were Harrogate residents using VPN, claims resident
A resident has rejected a “sarcastic” suggestion from a councillor that hundreds of people as far away as Australia signed a 2,000-strong petition opposing the £11.2m Station Gateway scheme.
Instead, he said they were people in Harrogate using a virtual private network (VPN) to disguise their location.
In May, an online petition calling on the controversial active travel scheme to be scrapped was presented to North Yorkshire Council’s Conservative executive.
But at a meeting later that month, the council’s executive member for corporate services, Cllr David Chance, claimed people from outside of Harrogate were signing the petition in order to boost its numbers.
He described the petition as “bogus” because internet protocol (IP) addresses attached to the petition, which reveal a computer or mobile phone’s location, showed 20% were from areas outside of Harrogate.
He said on May 30:
Read more:
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- Council spends £2m on consultants for Harrogate’s Station Gateway
- Lib Dems withdraw support for Harrogate’s Station Gateway
Cllr Chance’s comments provoked Harrogate resident Barry Adams to submit a statement to the council’s executive at a meeting this week.
Mr Adams argued there was an “odd anomaly” whereby IP addresses were shown on the petition rather than the person’s postal address if they were using a VPN.
A VPN replaces a user’s actual IP address to make it look like they’ve connected to the internet from a different location and they are used for privacy or security reasons.
Mr Adams said:
However, Cllr Chance dismissed Mr Adams’ theory and reaffirmed his position that the petition included a large number of signatures from outside of the town.
He said:
West Yorkshire Combined Authority is currently considering a business case submitted by NYC regarding the scheme.
If WYCA approves it later this summer, a contractor will be appointed with building work set to begin before the end of this year.
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