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.”

 

Councillors appointed onto parish council with just one member

Two borough councillors have been appointed onto Green Hammerton Parish Council after the authority was left with only one member and unable to conduct business.

Calls for four new parish councillors went out in April when the number of members shrunk to three.

Following the resignations of Councillor Jackson in June and Councillor Knight in July, membership was further reduced to one.

An election would normally have been held to fill the vacancies. However, the coronavirus pandemic has forced elections to be postponed until May 2021.

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This left the parish council with just one member and unable to conduct its business properly.

Harrogate Borough Council agreed yesterday to appoint district councillor Ann Myatt and county councillor Andrew Paraskos onto the council for a maximum of three months.

The authority will now be quorate, meaning it can co-opt new councillors to fill the remaining vacant seats and continue to operate.

Had they not been co-opted, HBC’s alternative proposal was to dissolve the parish council, which has an electorate of 677 people,

A report before HBC’s General Purposes Committee said there was interest in the remaining vacancies.

It said:

“The parish clerk has advised that there are currently several applicants that would like to be considered for co-option into the vacant seats. This can be actioned once Cllr Myatt and Cllr Paraskos are appointed to the council.”