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25
Mar
Council criticised over lack of progress on Knaresborough cycle route
Councillors have criticised a lack of progress on a key cycling scheme on the A59 in Knaresborough.
North Yorkshire Council has proposed a cycle route between High Bridge in the town and Harrogate Golf Club.
In May 2024, Harrogate and Knaresborough area committee approved £10,000 to help progress the scheme to a “preliminary design stage”.
However, a report before councillors last week said the project was still at the design stage.
It added that the route consisted of limited carriageway width, third party land adjacent to the adopted highway, a narrow listed bridge over the River Nidd and bus stops within the works area.
The report said that all of these made it difficult to “find a deliverable and cost effective solution”.
Jasmin Gibson, improvement project delivery manager at the council, told councillors that the A59 scheme was “not straightforward”.
She said:
It’s not a straight forward scheme that one. I know it might look like it, but it is not unfortunately. It’s a very constrained site with very limited width.
However, Cllr Monika Slater, the Liberal Democrat chair of the committee, said the lack of progress on the scheme was disappointing.
She said:
It just feels really disappointing that there is no movement whatsoever. I understand the reasons that you’ve cited as to why, but it is something else that this area committee gave money towards on the basis that it was felt that this was a viable scheme and it sounds as though we are no further on.
Ms Gibson told councillors that council officers hoped to have a more detailed update on the project in April.
She said:
We are making progress on it, but it is a challenging site unfortunately. We are working to overcome those issues.
It comes as North Yorkshire Council was awarded £369,000 from Active Travel England, a government agency, to make walking, wheeling and cycling easier.
The award was made after a £291 million funding round.
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