Readers’ Letters: Harrogate’s cycleway extension is an ‘extraordinary waste of public funds’

Readers’ Letters 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.  

 This letter follows news of the cycleway on Harrogate’s Otley Road being extended.

I’d like to echo the furore over plans to extend the cycleway. It is an extraordinary waste of public funds and has created more confusion and danger.

I walk it every day and I fear a cyclist using the path (perfectly legally) will plough into the back of me at 30mph. I’m reliant on their sense of speed, but I may hear the “whoosh” too late as my back is to them.

It’s the minority that cycle a little slower as they hit the dual area of pedestrians and cyclists – but it is not a road.

The joy of a stroll has been taken away. I can no longer amble along this route – it will be lights out for me if I do.

Then there’s the Prince of Wales roundabout. Most drivers don’t even indicate!  This only exacerbates the dangerous lottery of trying to cross the road.

A pelican crossing would surely be a fantastic safety investment and a tiny cost compared to the cycle path.

Shaun Bohan, Harrogate

I can’t help but feel the authorities just want a ‘quick fix’ for our roads…

This letter is in response to several stories about potholes and footpaths poor condition in the Harrogate district.

Further to your stories about the state of our roads and footpaths, one problem is the people repairing potholes have no idea how to do it properly.

It’s not the answer to just pour tarmac in the hole and ram it smooth. It should be dug out, a heavy base put in first, then a topcoat should be applied and sealed with hot tar. That’s how they did it fifty years ago and it worked.

I can’t help but feel the councils and government just want a quick fix to appease the likes of me…

Phil Turton, Harrogate

The plans for Victoria Avenue will only increase traffic in the town centre

This letter is in response to North Yorkshire Council’s decision to scrap plans to create cycle lanes on Victoria Avenue. The move means new measures, such as parking metres and making the Belford Road junction left-turn only, could be put in place. 

There is a simple first principle to managing traffic congestion for a town, which is to direct incoming traffic to peripheral car parks and then when traffic leaves, guide it back out without it passing through the town centre.  The current plans for Victoria Avenue seem to overlook this.

Tower Street has two public car parks with capacity for approximately 400 cars. Although there is signage to these car parks for vehicles arriving from the south, there is currently no signage as to how those vehicles should then exit the town.

The proposal to make the Belford Road junction with Victoria Avenue left-turn only will increase the number of cars that find themselves back on West Park, heading towards Parliament Street, then either cutting down Montpellier towards Cold Bath Road, or looping back round by the station.

There needs to be a sharper focus on the town centre map to plan exit routes from the Tower Street car parks.

Turning right out of Belford Road is actually optimal to take traffic away from the centre and maybe the infrastructure changes should make that easier and safer.

John Wann, 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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Readers’ Letters: ‘Harrogate’s roads are deteriorating before our eyes’

Readers’ Letters 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. 

This letter follows news of the Otley Road cycleway in Harrogate being extended.

I use a mobility scooter to go up the pavements to the Co-op.

The pavements are a disgrace – as are the so-called dropped kerbs.

It improves a bit half-way up the road on the cycleway, but I have never actually seen a cyclist on the existing cycleway. Why? Because it’s dangerous and confusing!

The section I use has corrugated concrete which is a nightmare to cross. People with prams and elderly pedestrians also have issues.

I have contacted councillor Keane Duncan several times about the pavements, and the pedestrian crossing on Otley Road near the Prince of Wales roundabout.  He has replied at one stage about the crossing.  But he, and others from Highways, ignore my offer of going out with me on my scooter to let them see the state of pavements. They could use my scooter to see just how difficult it is.

Regarding his idea of buying The Grand Hotel, in Scarborough… I am speechless.

It is a beautiful historic building but does not warrant cllr Duncan spending tax payers’ money on it. Pavements and potholes should be a priority.

Ann Townson, Harrogate

Harrogate’s roads are deteriorating before our eyes…

On the topic of Harrogate roads, this letter bemoans the state of them. Few topics boil our readers’ blood more than potholes, gullies and poor road conditions.

Why, oh, why are our roads disintegrating before our eyes?

Surely the council should be thoroughly embarrassed, considering we live in a town that promotes cycling.

They waste money on harebrained schemes, such as the Gateway, but cannot plan road replacements.

And don’t even get me going about road gully maintenance.

Phil Brown, Harrogate

Ripon is becoming a ‘laughingstock’ with the number of construction projects

This letter responds to several potential and ongoing construction projects in Ripon, including the leisure centre, housing developments and the Cathedral annexe saga.

Ripon is becoming a laughing stock with the number of issues relating to construction projects.

Firstly, the farce of a leisure centre being built on totally unsuitable land.

Then there is the ridiculous state of the road around the Market Square and the housing development built on greenbelt land at the top of South Grange Road.

And now the absolute debacle of the Cathedral annexe.

It is an absolute joke, are the powers that be able to plan, or deliver, a construction project with any level of professionalism?

Tony Sidwell, Ripon

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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Otley Road cycleway extension: a welcome boost for active travel or a costly folly?

When transport chief Cllr Keane Duncan announced last year phase two of the Otley Road cycleway had been scrapped, it appeared to signal the end of the project.

It therefore came as a surprise this week when Harlow and Pannal Ash Residents’ Association‘s spring meeting, attended by North Yorkshire Council officers, heard the scheme had been revived.

So what has changed and is the prospect of extending the shared route for cyclists and pedestrians a welcome step forward for active travel or a costly folly?

The cycleway was due to be built in three phases and form part of a safe, off-road cycling route from Harrogate Rail Station to Cardale Park, encouraging people to get out of cars in an area where 4,000 homes are being built.

Phase one, from Cold Bath Road to Harlow Moor Road, was completed late and over budget.

Phase two was supposed to extend east from Cold Bath Road to Beech Grove, eventually connecting to a yet-to-be-built cycleway on Victoria Avenue.

Phase three, extending west from Harlow Moor Drive to Cardale Park, was never officially abandoned but the political will to proceed appeared to have been sapped. So reviving it has attracted considerable debate in recent days, although the route will now only extend 1.1km up Otley Road to Harlow Carr.

The junction of Otley Road and Harlow Moor Road, showing where the cycleway would be extended.

Phase three will be funded by developers as mitigation for building homes in west Harrogate, whereas phase two was due to be funded by the council, which has struggled to secure funding for active travel schemes. This goes a long way to explaining why phase three is going ahead rather than phase two.

Also, unlike previous phases, there won’t be a specific consultation on phase three, limiting the prospect of dissent.

Hapara has distributed leaflets to residents about the plans and clearly isn’t a fan.

The leaflet says:

“The general view of this scheme is that it will not deliver any real benefits to mitigate against the high levels of traffic on Otley Road which is how it was sold when initially launched.

“If the intention is to get more people cycling, which is a perfectly sensible aim, this scheme appears to be an expensive way of delivering the objective. Perhaps a better option would be to publicise the existing network of cycle paths to a greater extent.”

Some residents at this week’s meeting agreed and said the money would be better spent on improving bus services.

But the leaflet drew a stinging rebuke from the campaign group Harrogate District Cycle Action, which fired off a series of tweets that accused Hapara of “misleading” statements.

It is v disappointing to see @HaparaHgt putting out an anti-Otley Road Cycleway leaflet https://t.co/FYUk5bgtJv
If you are anti-cycle infrastructure, you are in effect anti-more people cycling more often @NeilHind @walkbikescoot @HKLibDems @HarrogateGreens 1/ pic.twitter.com/UHlHHa49Gc

— Harrogate Cycle Action (@cycle_harrogate) April 17, 2024

 

For example, the leaflet said construction would result in the loss of five trees around the junction of Otley Rd and Beckwith Road, which Harrogate District Cycle Action said “would only be lost if the council widens the road to create extra lanes for motor vehicles”.

The cycling group also said the leaflet was wrong to say there was a “strong negative public response” to phase two because 104 people told a second round of consultation they were in favour of going ahead while only 83 were against, despite the comments by Cllr Duncan, the council’s executive member for highways, saying the project was shelved due to its unpopularity.

It concluded:

“Overall, the individuals steering Hapara are not serving or representing the residents of the local area well by taking such a hostile stance to cycling. Hapara should be working with the council to create the best cycle facilities possible in Otley Road.”

Speaking after Wednesday’s meeting, Hapara chair Rene Dziabas said:

“I am not opposed to cycling but I do think the whole basis on which this scheme was conceived was wrong. It was never going to provide the mitigation required on Otley Road.”

Cyclists are frustrated about the council failing to deliver on schemes in Harrogate and Knaresborough. While pleased to see progress, many share concerns that such a disjointed scheme on Otley Road will make a significant difference, particularly as without phase two it won’t form the holy grail of an integrated route around town.

Public consultation concerns

Cllr Mike Schofield not only has a political interest in the matter but also a personal one. As the independent North Yorkshire councillor for Harlow and St George’s, the cycleway is on his patch. He is also landlord of the Shepherd’s Dog pub on Otley Road, which the extended cycleway will pass.

The Shepherd’s Dog

Cllr Schofield said he had two concerns:

“Whilst I accept that appropriate legal requirements may have been satisfied I am extremely disappointed that no public consultation is to take place for the residents of Harlow Hill, Beckwithshaw and those who use the Otley Road corridor.

“Yes, residents can make their viewpoints known via the planning portal and searching through the planning application documentation but that can be like wading through a minefield whereas a simple consultation would make it more accessible and easier for residents.”

He added:

“I also have concerns around the developer funding, my worry being that developers of sites that are not on the Otley Road corridor may seek ways of avoiding their financial commitment to the scheme and therefore leaving the residents of Harlow Hill and Beckwithshaw with a substandard and not fit-for-purpose scheme as we have in phase one.

“It seems to me so much is either still undecided, up in the air or being kept very secret.”

The Stray Ferret contacted the council requesting more details about the scheme, including why it had decided to revive it and the expected cost.

A council spokesperson said, as the highways authority, it was a statutory consultee in the planning application process and not the promoters of any of the off-site mitigation measures being offered.

Allan McVeigh, the council’s head of network strategy, added:

“The third phase of Otley Road cycle route has been progressed as part of developer-funded off-site works linked to the west of Harrogate planning applications, rather than a scheme promoted by the council.

“The planning application process will form the consultation, as is the case for all other off-site highway works put forward by developers. The timescale for construction will depend on how the applications progress and are determined.”

The cycle route is back on the agenda. But the route ahead remains unclear.

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Council seeks contractors to begin work on Hammerton Greenway

A contractor is being sought to to create a 1.7km traffic-free cycleway  from Green Hammerton to Thorpe Underwood.

The Hammerton Greenway, which will cost an estimated £84,600, will encourage cycling in villages close to main roads.

Green Hammerton Parish Council began work on the scheme after the 2014 Tour de France passed through the area and a planning application to change the use of land to facilitate a cycleway was submitted last year to North Yorkshire Council.

The village lies between York and Harrogate. The A59 and Boroughbridge Road limit access to the network of country roads into the vale of York.

The greenway will link with Great Ouseburn, which is part of the Way of the Roses cycle route from Morecambe to Bridlington.

North Yorkshire Council is funding the majority of the scheme from developer contributions paid by housebuilders and now the parish council is seeking bids from contractors to carry out the work. The deadline for submissions is April 30.

Work is expected to begin in autumn, after the nesting season and harvesting so overhanging branches and overgrown hedges can be cut back.

Planning documents submitted to the council in support of the application said:

“This will be a greenway for all users and will be designed to give a smooth dry surface for year-round use on foot, by cycle, and with children’s buggies or by those in wheelchairs.”

Creating the cycleway will mainly involve upgrading existing public footpaths and farm tracks to create a more even and levelled surface. The surface will be ‘durable all-weather crushed stone, with mown verges either side, giving a total width of 5m’.

Moss Hill Lane will be included in the cycleway.

The planning documents add:

“The work will require the replacement of an existing bridge with a new, cycleway bridge, the installation of potential street furniture (benches, bollards, and gates) and new/enhanced boundary treatments in the form of hedge planting and where necessary fencing.”

Jon Purday, a campaigner for the greenway who put the idea to the parish council in 2014, said:

“The Hammerton Greenway will be a safe route for families to take children on bikes, buggies and scooters, for walkers, wheelchairs and mobility vehicles, and for young people to cycle on a traffic-free track. Green Hammerton is hemmed in by busy main roads which are dangerous for young and inexperienced cyclists.

“In the past decade Green Hammerton has doubled in size and many young families have moved into the new houses. The Hammerton Greenway offers safe, accessible space for all those growing up in the village to learn to cycle and to get the benefit of living in the country.

“Queen Ethelburga’s school is just a mile away over the fields, and all the Green Hammerton children who go there, as well as teachers and others in the village who work there, will be able to cycle safely into school. That’s a much more exciting way to start the day than adding to the school car run.”

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Plans to create new traffic-free greenway submitted

Plans have been submitted to create a 1.6-mile traffic-free cycleway called the Hammerton Greenway.

The greenway would link Green Hammerton and Thorpe Underwood and cost an estimated £84,600,

Green Hammerton Parish Council began work on the scheme after the 2014 Tour de France passed through the area.

A planning application to change the use of land to facilitate a cycleway has now been submitted to North Yorkshire Council.

Planning documents submitted to the council in support of the application said:

“This will be a greenway for all users and will be designed to give a smooth dry surface for year round use on foot, by cycle, and with children’s buggies or by those in wheelchairs.”

Green Hammerton is surrounded by main roads, which limit access to the network of relatively quiet country roads into the vale of York.

The greenway would link with Great Ouseburn, four miles away, which is part of the Way of the Roses cycle route running from Morecambe to Bridlington.

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The parish council asked path construction specialists David Gray and John Grimshaw to prepare a report detailing how best to deliver this project.

Funding is now thought to be in place thanks to contributions from developers that have built housing in the area.

Upgrading paths

Creating the cycleway will mainly involve upgrading existing paths with a more even and levelled surface.

The planning documents add:

“Furthermore, the work will require the replacement of an existing bridge with a new, North Yorkshire Council standard cycleway bridge, the installation of potential street furniture (benches, bollards, and gates) and new/enhanced boundary treatments in the form of hedge planting and where necessary fencing.”

Cycling groups Harrogate Wheel Easy and Harrogate District Cycle Action support the scheme.

Gia Margolis, chair of Harrogate Wheel Easy, said in planning documents:

“The proximity of this route to the growing cycle network in this area is very exciting.

“The success of the Nidderdale Greenway and the Spofforth to Wetherby and Thorp Arch cycleway are major contributors to encouraging more people to cycle.

“Children and adults who have the opportunity to cycle along traffic free routes gain confidence and skills that cannot be done on our busy roads.”