Straight Talk: It's time for good old fashioned Yorkshire common sense

Straight Talk: It’s time for good old fashioned Yorkshire common sense

Last updated May 21, 2021

This opinion column is written by Marilyn Stowe. Marilyn built the largest family law firm in the UK, which she ran from Harrogate. She sold her firm in 2017 to private equity left the law and is now a writer and speaker.

Do you remember ‘The Good Old Days’ of your childhood? I grimace when I recall those all weather days when our mum walked two of us to our primary school, walked home again, the third along for the ride in his push chair. Then they would return to collect us and walk us home.

We weren’t near a bus route. When mum took us shopping, all three aged under 6, we walked to the bus stop, jumping with excitement as the bus arrived, demanding to sit upstairs regardless of the baby and the push chair. It was the same going home, waiting for the bus, my mum managing us, a baby and a shopping bag, then walking again. Come rain or shine, fog or snow, that was the reality of the ‘Good Old Days.’ I remember my mum bursting into tears when my dad surprised her with a little car in the 1970s and the strain was relieved.

So why the desire of some, to inflict this backward step on so many others? The three local authorities handling the controversial Harrogate Station Gateway scheme have highly ambitious and I doubt achievable ‘green’ plans;- a 2000% increase in cycling trips, (yes, you read that correctly) 78% increase in walking trips and 39% increase in bus trips. They ominously intend ‘to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to enable people to make walking, cycling or public transport their first choice for journeys.’ And to deliver their aim, Harrogate now has just shy of £8m of government funds to spend, with more cycle lanes, removal of trees and at least 45 parking spaces and parking permits, probably far higher with implementation of road closures and the imposition of controversial one way systems and rerouting.

Beech Grove is ‘experimentally closed’ at the back of the Stray. In Cold Bath Road, traffic now backs up alongside the parked cars, mothers, children and buses. It is acknowledged that there will be far more traffic delays across Central Harrogate. More traffic congestion has all the potential for increase in road traffic accidents and hardly beneficial for clean air.

Not everyone though is in favour of this draconian approach and that looks like an understatement. Only 1100 of the 75,000 Harrogate residents responded to an online survey, of which 40+ % backed the scheme in part. Hardly a ringing endorsement by a large majority. With thousands of livelihoods on the line post pandemic, fearful business owners and residents, are vocally fighting back, whilst also working hard to attract new business nationally to Harrogate.

So given the risk at stake, why not compromise? It is still possible to effect a fair balance of all perceived needs and perceived harms, rather than a bitterly opposed scheme at the end of a terrible trading year. Everyone has a legal right to exercise their own choice of transport in our still democratic society not just a few. You may enjoy a bike ride or a bus journey. Others prefer the comfort of their own cars. There should be consideration for all.

The fake grass scheme is an example of an ill thought out imposition on Harrogate, a complete waste of money. This is far worse. Disregarding the rights of the majority is not good governance as parts of the South of England are making clear with similar schemes quietly imposed in the last year.

There is all the potential for an £8m disaster with the very heart of Harrogate at stake, unless compromise and Yorkshire common sense prevails.