Readers' Letters: Harrogate Station Gateway scheme would disrupt daily life

Readers’ Letters is a free weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Rachel Inchboard is a resident who lives nearby to where the Harrogate Station Gateway project is expected to be implemented. In response to the ongoing project, she sent us her feelings over the scheme.

My general feelings to the Gateway Project are:

1. Fear of disruption to daily life and quality for the people who live and work in Harrogate Town Centre, during and after the construction.

2. Anger-That the general public have not been properly consulted on the newly revised plans.

3. Mistrust- A council that can adhere to recent authoritarian and draconian measures imposed on a population may use this scheme as a building block to implement future sanctions on the local people's freedoms, quality of life and choices.

4. Sadness- That no part of the scheme appears to celebrate Harrogate's heritage and past.

5. Despair- When relief roads and road improvements were considered but not implemented in serving the towns needs in the 1990's. The missing link has been left blatantly undone yet the council is desperate to tick boxes to implement  a scheme totally in appropriate to the town.

6. Exhausted- I feel completely depleted and helpless by lack of infrastructure improvements which promote business growth and leads to existing equity to stagnate and possibly slow down and contract due to constraints on productivity.

In summary the scheme leaves me feeling cheated and abandoned by the non existent 'Town Council' by North Yorkshire Council's disregard for the quality of life of Harrogate's Residents.

Rachel Inchboard, Harrogate

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

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