Are the Beech Grove planters set for a comeback?

More than six weeks have passed since Beech Grove in Harrogate reopened to through traffic.

But the planters that blocked the highway remain by the side of the road — prompting speculation that they might be brought back.

Beech Grove was closed to through traffic for 18 months from February last year to encourage cycling and walking in the area.

When the experimental order implementing the measure expired in August, the planters were moved to the side and traffic could once again use the route to travel between Otley Road and West Park.

A no-through road sign also remains in place, prompting questions about whether measures to restrict traffic on Beech Grove could be brought back.

Beech Grove is regarded as a key part of wider plans to create a traffic-free route for cyclists between Harrogate train station and Cardale Park on Otley Road.

Beech Grove sign

The Stray Ferret asked North Yorkshire County Council, the highways authority, why the planters and sign had not been removed and whether there were any plans to once again prohibit traffic on Beech Grove.

Melisa Burnham, highways area manager at the council, said the council was still considering what to do. She said:

“The planters are safely placed at the side of the road but will not be removed until we have considered the potential links from Otley Road to the town centre further.

“The sign was missed in error and we will remove it as soon as possible.”

Last month Cllr Keane Duncan, the council’s executive member for highways and transport, said it would “bring forward a detailed and coordinated plan, connecting active travel initiatives such as Otley Road and Station Gateway together”.

How Beech Grove figures in these plans remains to be seen.

Stray Views: Harrogate Station Gateway scheme is ‘long overdue’

Stray Views is a 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.

Station Gateway is ‘long overdue’

I’ve read the debate and articles, many of them in the Stray Ferret and have become increasingly disillusioned by the negativity. I think it’s now time for those like me who think this proposal is long overdue to say so.

It’s not perfect and personally I would like it to go further, but it goes some way to rebalancing the area in favour of those who choose/have to walk and cycle and to revitalise this area. It will help reconnect the town centre with surrounding communities and better link the railway and bus stations to the town. This type of scheme has been successfully done in other towns and cities and has proved truly transformative.

Station Parade is a ‘great’ example of the type of traffic planning which was inflicted on communities in the last century, across the country. These ring roads were designed to speed traffic through towns but with little regard for the impacts of the surrounding communities or other forms of transport.

With this scheme we now have a chance to start to put some of this right.

Much of the debate has been about how many seconds will be added to journeys and the impact on businesses. With the reduced impact of traffic in this area, better connection of the town centre and a revitalised local area, there must be the potential for a better business environment. There may be some extra seconds on journeys but the bigger picture of improved lives and business success must surely be worth it.

Let’s not also forget that this scheme is being achieved through external government finance, a pretty rare thing these days. If we miss this opportunity and fail to deliver, don’t be surprised if the next time we ask for help there is a sceptical response.

So let’s get behind this scheme and show what we’re capable of achieving.

The consultation closes on 23 August. Have your say, it will be too late afterwards wishing you’d bothered to respond, when the doom merchants talk it out of time. Fill in the survey here.

Ian Brown, Knaresborough

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Relief at Beech Grove LTN end

Thank goodness the boxes are to be removed.

We used Beech Grove to park our car for the last 50 years as it allowed us to walk on the Stray for pleasure or just going into the town centre. Why did Beech Grove almost always have parking space available?

With the boxes installed we had no means of taking pleasure of walking across the Stray.

It is almost impossible to have a walk on any of the Stray as all parking places are occupied nearly all day. This makes the Stray a useless piece of land as the residents of the area plus visitors cannot use it.

Going back to Beech Grove, I have always thought that it should be a one way going up from The Avenue to Otley Road. As a two way traffic route it meant that a lot of speeding took place to get past the cars parked on it.

Allan Campbell, 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.

Planters moved as Harrogate’s Beech Grove reopens

Harrogate’s Beech Grove has re-opened to through traffic.

North Yorkshire County Council introduced an experimental order in February last year closing the road at the junction with Lancaster Road.

The move was initially brought in as a one-year trial but was later extended to 18 months.

It aimed to encourage cycling and walking and there were suggestions the closure could become permanent.

But the council announced this month the order would end.

The decision proved popular with some residents and motorists, who said it merely increased traffic on neighbouring streets, but upset some cyclists, who had been told Beech Grove would be a central part of plans to create an integrated cycle route between Cardale Park and Harrogate train station.

Today the planters enforcing the closure were removed, two days before the experimental order was due to expire.

A council spokesman said this afternoon:

“Beech Grove and Lancaster Road are now open to vehicles.”

But what happens next is unclear.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for highways and transport, Cllr Keane Duncan, said it will review the situation and then “bring forward a detailed and coordinated plan, connecting active travel initiatives such as Otley Road and Station Gateway together”.

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Stray Views: Who benefits from Maltkiln?

Stray Views is a 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.

Who benefits from the Maltkiln development? 

Will our local councils come clean and explain to us why they are proceeding with Maltkiln after refusing, right up to the High Court, the development of Flaxby with the following consequences:

Can they tell us who are the beneficiaries of this decision?

Dr Terry Bramall CBE, Harrogate

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Chain Lane/York Road junction, Knaresborough

Having read Mr Payne’s letter regarding this junction and the poor signage, I was compelled to write. I asked North Yorkshire County Council why the temporary right turn sign suddenly appeared. This makes life difficult for residents on The Paddock trying to get home from Wetherby Road. The diversion down Manse Lane is nothing short of dangerous!

I have waited patiently for weeks for a reply…still waiting. I also contacted our Town representatives….they are also still waiting for a reply.

Is this the service we can expect when we all come under North Yorkshire Council. It makes me shudder!

Please Highways, can I have an answer?

Regards

Jayne Jackson, Knaresborough 

Opening Beech Grove wont solve anything

Dennis Richards says the Beech Grove scheme has made Victoria Road more dangerous because of speeding traffic.

Beech Grove Low Traffic Neighbourhood hasn’t made drivers go faster on Victoria Road but it has meant there are more of them. That is going to be tackled by making the junction with Otley Road one way only.

Drivers will be able to enter Victoria Road but not exit onto Otley Road.

Opening up Beech Grove to through traffic won’t solve anything but will make the road much less pleasant for residents and no longer a safe oasis for cyclists.

Malcolm Margolis , Harrogate District Cycle Action 

Beech Grove decision leaves Harrogate in slow lane for cycling

Beech Grove was supposed to be the centre of a new cycle network in Harrogate from Cardale Park to the train station.

It would link cycle routes on Otley Road and Victoria Avenue, encouraging people in the west of Harrogate to travel in and out of town on bikes.

So this week’s decision to re-open the road to through traffic came as an unwelcome surprise to cyclists and left many wondering when the much-vaunted active travel measures for the town would actually be active.

It is now five years since North Yorkshire County Council secured funding for the Otley Road route. So far a third of it has been built, hardly to a fanfare of applause.

Two years ago the county council also successfully bid for funding to create cycle routes on Oatlands Drive and Victoria Avenue in Harrogate and on Harrogate Road in Knaresborough.

The Oatlands scheme has been shelved and there appears to be little prospect of work starting soon on the other projects.

Beech Grove

Beech Grove

Some people hailed the council’s decision not to extend the 18-month Beech Grove experiment as a victory for common sense.

Former headteacher Dennis Richards said it was a well intentioned but half-baked proposal that turned nearby Victoria Road into a racetrack as motorists sought alternative routes.

Victoria Road

There were plans to extend traffic calming measures into Victoria Road.

But active travel supporters were left gloomy about the prospect of progress on schemes to make Harrogate more cycle friendly and reduce the carbon footprint.

Kevin Douglas, chair of Harrogate District Cycle Action, said:

“We are very disappointed. We knew nothing about the fact that they were going to take this decision.

“If you bid for these funds, you have to deliver them.”

Mr Douglas described Beech Grove as a “key link” in the plans to develop cycling in Harrogate. Without it, he said the Otley Road scheme lost much of its value.

Otley Road

The council introduced the experimental order in February last year and Mr Douglas said this gave it 18 months to resolve any issues.

The council had talked about making Victoria Road one way and creating a wider low traffic neighbourhood but any plans appear to be back at square one. Several cyclists took to Twitter to vent their frustration.

Terrible decision by N Yorkshire. Worse that the 1st major decision by new Executive Member for Access Keane Duncan is to give a thumbs down to active travel, and the green light to rat-running traffic. It shows a lack of backbone & failure to commit to active travel.

— Hedgehog Cycling (@HedgehogCycling) August 4, 2022

 

So does the end of the Beech Grove experiment spell the end of plans to develop cycling in the area? It would appear not.

A council spokeswoman said:

“This information and feedback will allow us the opportunity to bring forward a detailed and coordinated plan, connecting active travel initiatives such as Otley Road and Station Gateway together as planned.

“We will involve residents and interested parties as we draw up plans for a wider package of permanent measures, which we plan to consult in September.”

But the prospect of another round of consultation doesn’t thrill cyclists who are desperate to see progress.

Mr Douglas said:

“What we need is less consultation and more action.”

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New cycling plans for Harrogate to be drawn up next month

A “detailed and co-ordinated plan” to encourage cycling and walking in Harrogate will be drawn up next month.

North Yorkshire County Council said today the plan will connect active travel initiatives such as the Otley Road cycle route and the Station Gateway.

It comes a day after the council revealed the Beech Grove road closure, which was introduced to encourage cycling, will end on August 14.

Beech Grove was seen as a key part of an integrated cycle route from Cardale Park to Harrogate train station.

So the decision to re-open it to through traffic was greeted with dismay by some cyclists and environmentalists.

But that doesn’t appear to be the end of the matter.

A council spokeswoman said today the Beech Grove measures, which cost £10,000, were introduced on a trial-only basis in February 2021, for a maximum of 18 months.

Beech Road

Bollards being installed on Beech Grove last year.

Because the trial is due to end on August 14, the “measures must legally be removed on this date”, the spokeswoman said, adding:

“Throughout the trial period we have reviewed consultation responses, collected traffic survey data and carried out site observations.

“This information and feedback will allow us the opportunity to bring forward a detailed and coordinated plan, connecting active travel initiatives such as Otley Road and Station Gateway together as planned.

“We will involve residents and interested parties as we draw up plans for a wider package of permanent measures, which we plan to consult in September.”

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Ex-Harrogate headteacher welcomes end to ‘dangerous’ Beech Grove closure

Former Harrogate headteacher Dennis Richards has spoken of his relief at the decision to end the Beech Grove closure.

Mr Richards, who was headteacher at St Aidan’s Church of England High School from 1989 to 2012, lives on Victoria Road, close to Beech Grove.

He said closing Beech Grove to through traffic to encourage cycling and walking was well intentioned but had led to a large increase in speeding traffic on Victoria Road.

So he was delighted when North Yorkshire County Council announced yesterday that restrictions on vehicles using Beech Grove and Lancaster Road in Harrogate will end on August 14.

Mr Richards said:

“The impact on Victoria Road has been traumatic.

“It has been very dangerous, particularly at the top end where it runs into Otley Road, especially during term time.

“Since Beech Grove closed, Victoria Road has become a race track so I’m delighted from a safety point of view.”

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Being a former headteacher, Mr Richards said he sympathised with the aim of creating a low traffic neighbourhood to improve the environment.

But he said the scheme was “half-baked” because it had the unintended consequence of making the surrounding roads worse.

Victoria Road, he said, was particularly badly affected because the narrow section from Lancaster Road to Otley Road, where Mr Richards lives, doesn’t have any speed bumps to slow motorists. He said:

“Harrogate Grammar School is only 150 yards up the road and this will make the roads safer.”

 

Beech Grove road closure in Harrogate to end in 10 days

Trial restrictions on vehicles using Beech Grove and Lancaster Road in Harrogate are to end in 10 days time.

Measures aimed at encouraging more walking and cycling in Harrogate were introduced on a trial basis in February 2021, for a maximum of 18 months.

It saw the temporary installation of signage, bollards and planters in the two streets – the first initiative of its kind in the county.

The 18-month experimental order will lapse on August 14, meaning the measures must legally now be removed.

Feedback from the trial will now be considered before a wider package of permanent measures to promote environmentally-friendly travel is drawn up and consulted upon in September.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for highways and transport, Cllr Keane Duncan, said:

“It is fair to say these trial restrictions have been controversial. We have received significant feedback – positive and negative – and we’ve learnt a lot over the past 18 months.

“We know that more people are now using this route to walk and cycle, which is encouraging and in line with our aim of promoting sustainable travel. However, we are also aware of negative impacts affecting those living nearby.

“Now the trial period is over, it is only right that we review in detail what’s worked and what could work better.

“This will allow us the opportunity to bring forward a detailed and coordinated plan, connecting active travel initiatives such as Otley Road and Station Gateway together in the best way while addressing many of the objections raised by local residents.

“We will be seeking input from local councillors, active travel groups and the public to ensure we are developing the most effective possible plan for this area.”

Decision looms on future of Beech Grove low traffic neighbourhood

A final decision on whether to make the Beech Grove low traffic neighbourhood in Harrogate permanent is looming, according to the new county council highways chief.

Cllr Keane Duncan, who succeeded Don Mackenzie as the executive member for access at North Yorkshire County Council, said a decision was “upcoming” on the closure.

The measure was controversially introduced in February 2021 as a temporary one-year to closure in an effort to encourage walking and cycling.

County council officials later extended the trial until August this year.

Cllr Duncan told the Stray Ferret a decision will be taken in the coming months as to whether it stays or not.

He said:

“There’s an upcoming decision on Beech Grove as to whether it is made permanent or whether it comes out. We can’t really extend it any further on a temporary basis.

“It is either that it is there or it isn’t.”

Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for highways on North Yorkshire County Council.

Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for highways on North Yorkshire County Council.

He added that further consultation would be carried out if the decision to make the closure permanent and seek a traffic regulation order was taken.

Cllr Duncan said:

“For me, with the benefit of the time that it has been in place, it’s about seeing what people think about it now to see if their views have changed.”

Station Gateway

In a wide-ranging interview, the Stray Ferret asked Cllr Duncan about his views on the many multi-million pound highways schemes in the district.

On the £10.9 million Station Gateway project, Cllr Duncan said he was fully supportive of the the scheme.

He added, however, that he was willing to listen to cyclists, businesses and people ahead of the the third round of consultation this year.

Cllr Duncan said:

“I’m personally supportive of that scheme and we are wanting to progress it.

“We are going out to a third round of public consultation to ensure that everyone can have their say and their opinions.

“For me, my test on the ground is what do the local councillors think and feel? They are the representatives of their local community.”

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Meanwhile, Cllr Duncan said he was keen to press ahead with the second phase of the Otley Road cycle route.

County council officials were due to go out to tender on a construction contract this month with a view to starting work in the autumn.

Cllr Duncan said:

“We are pushing ahead with delivery of the Otley Road scheme.

“It is important to recognise that there is £4.6 million of funding for that scheme. It does connect in with all the other schemes ongoing within Harrogate.

“It is important to not look at every individual location in isolation. We have got to look at how this adds up to the bigger picture.”

‘Getting the balance right’

Cllr Duncan said he felt that that “on the whole” the council was trying to get the balance right on the various schemes across the district.

However, he added that he was aware of concerns over some of the schemes such as the gateway project.

He added:

“It’s about getting that balance right and recognising that at the moment most journeys are via car in and around Harrogate.

“It’s people trying to get to work, people trying to see friends and family and people visiting the town because Harrogate is a major tourist destination.

“We’re trying to encourage where we can for people to use other modes of transport. That’s not always possible, so we have to make sure we get that balanced approach.”

Look out for an in depth profile with Cllr Keane Duncan on the Stray Ferret later this week.

Three bins in Harrogate set alight deliberately last night

Harrogate firefighters believe three separate bin fires in Harrogate last night were started deliberately.

Firefighters were initially called to a fire in a bin on Cambridge Street at 6.25pm, which had been doused on arrival by a member of the public using a coffee cup.

Fire crews then used a hose to cool the bin down.

They were then alerted to another bin fire on Beech Grove an hour later. 

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The fire was put out using a hose reel.

Another deliberate fire was reported in a wheelie bin on Oxford Street at 8pm.The bin was close to commercial properties and fire crews used a hose reel to put out the blaze.

A spokesman for Harrogate fire station said they believed the fires were deliberately started by the same people and have informed the police.