Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

Handbags this week between Harrogate’s Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.  It seems that one of the Liberal Democrats favourite campaign tricks – using petitions to raise awareness of this, that and the other – has been called into question.  Richard Cooper, Conservative leader of Harrogate Borough Council, has written to the Information Commissioners Office to allege that the Lib Dems have been using petitions nefariously; harvesting the public’s data; information volunteered for the specific purpose of supporting the cause in question, and putting it in the bank for reaching people in future for as yet unnamed uses.  Conor Mackenzie, the Lib Dem’s local spokesperson, has strenuously denied the accusation that, wait for it, four petitions have been taken but not all submitted.

I don’t know how many names were taken in total, but I’m guessing not very many.  In fact the Lib Dem’s did submit a list of names protesting the demise of Stray FM to new owners Bauer Media and claim the act of publicising the other petitions led to the result they wanted and obviated the need to submit them.  The only thing about this which does not ring true is that it suggests Harrogate’s Lib Dems ran three successful political campaigns.  If they did I must have missed it, but in common with most of the nation, I don’t lately pay much attention to what is, by a long way now, very much the third party in our politics.

Given the enormous volume and nature of our personal data harvested both explicitly and secretly every day as we use our smartphones, our computers, social media, online retailers et al, the idea that putting our name, (and sometimes) address and contact details on a petition poses a threat to our privacy holds little water.  I suspect the Information Commissioner, Canadian Elizabeth Denham, has much better things to spend her time on.  I know that Richard Cooper does, not least on sorting out Harrogate Council’s dismal record on planning.

From Pannal Ash to Harlow Carr, from Killinghall to Green Hammerton, to Claro Road, from Whinney Lane, one can’t help but notice the relentless development of our formerly green spaces.  I understand of course that we need to build more homes, including affordable homes for key workers and others working hard on stretched-to-the-limit salaries.  However, driving past new estates does not fill the aesthete’s heart with any sort of joy.  These brick palaces are clearly built with function and cost efficiency in the ascendency, with form and wellbeing relegated from the imagination.  No Charles Windsor Poundbury (with its varied architecture, colourful dwellings and carefully planned green spaces) these.  Rather, they are a densely packed, mass produced homogeneity, with little space for the human soul of community congregation and leisure.

David Howarth worked for Harrogate Borough Council in its planning department for five years in the 1980’s. He subsequently acted as a consultant to the council for a further thirty years, so he should know a thing or two about planning.  And, if he doesn’t, then we have to seriously ask ourselves why the council paid him his consideration for such a long time.  So, when Mr. Howarth says that planning in the district was in ‘disarray,’ the result of ‘weak’ practice, then we should pay attention.

The Stray Ferret team this week reported the findings of their in-depth housing investigation on planning between 2014 and 2020:  The urban sprawl and concreting of our countryside has covered an area that would accommodate a breath-taking 700 football pitches.  There seems to have been no Local Plan guiding this development (and I use the term guiding just about as loosely as I can).  All this sprawl is estimated to put another 26,500 cars on Harrogate’s already crowded highways and byways.  Meanwhile “it’s all gone quiet over there” with respect to building a link road that might alleviate some of the traffic pressure in town.

Developers have so far managed to avoid having to pay for the infrastructure needed to make a newbuild home not just a place to dwell, but a place to live.  Accordingly, the provision of sufficient schools places, GP surgeries, dentists and essential infrastructure have all been neglected.  The taxpayer, as ever it seems, is footing the bill to right the ship.  If and when regional devolution brings the curtain down on Harrogate Borough Council and its ever growing and sorry record, what it will do about its 2020 Local Plan – yes, after 6 years of waiting we finally have one – is anybody’s guess.  I’d be tempted to rip it up and start again.

I note with interest this week that the Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative Association had benefitted from a £10,000 government grant, to help it through the Covid crisis and address a financial shortfall caused by its inability to conduct fundraising and other activities.  It is a matter of individual choice to subscribe to a party membership or participate, hoping for the top prize of a bottle of Bells blended whisky, in the tombola.  However, I don’t feel that any political organisation should receive the same treatment as a small business from the public purse.  Maybe I’ll start a petition.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

Read More: 

• Council mistakes led to huge urban sprawl says local planner 


• Harrogate council defends planning accusations 


• Harrogate Conservative Association criticised for accepting £10,000 covid grant


• Conservative leader of Harrogate Borough Council reports Liberal Democrats to Information Commissioner