Harrogate could get the county’s first CYCLOPS junction as part of a scheme to improve pedestrian and cycling safety.

Cycle Optimised Protected Signals are Dutch-style junctions, which separate cyclists from traffic to improve safety for all road users.

The UK’s first CYCLOPS was built in Manchester last year and now Harrogate could get one as part of North Yorkshire County Council’s active travel schemes, which are currently out for consultation.

Melissa Burnham, highways area manager, told a public event yesterday the idea had been put forward for the Station Parade junction of Victoria Avenue, which already has plans for new cycle lanes, a zebra crossing and ‘floating’ bus stop. She said:

“It is not something we have ever installed in North Yorkshire before but it is just an idea of what could be achieved.

“Essentially, the idea would be that any upgrade at this junction would have to incorporate all road users effectively and efficiently but it would be subject to necessary traffic modelling to understand the impact from Station Parade”.

Under the active travel schemes, there are also proposals for a 40mph limit, cycle lanes and junction upgrades on the A59 between Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Read more:

• Harrogate walking and cycling schemes: latest plans revealed
• Residents welcome decision to drop Oatlands Drive one-way scheme

There were also plans to make Oatlands Drive in Harrogate one-way to free up road space for more cycling and walking improvements but this met strong objections from residents concerned about the impact on traffic.

North Yorkshire County Council has now put forward new proposals for a 20mph limit, junction improvements and restrictions on cars using St Hilda’s Road and St Winifred’s Drive, but there were still similar concerns raised at today’s consultation event.

Saints area ‘more dangerous’

One resident, Nick Manning, said the restrictions would turn nearby streets into rat runs and make the Saints area “more dangerous for walkers and cyclists, especially children walking to school”.

Another resident, Roger Tock, questioned:

“How do North Yorkshire County Council think that the additional cars being forced to access St Winifred’s Road are going to be beneficial to the currently unacceptable pollution and parking problems which have been allowed to be a problem in excess of 10 years?”

In response, Ms Burnham said comments and suggestions from all residents would be taken into account during the consultation process, which recently moved to a second phase with the publication of designs and will run until 12 April.

Councillor Don Mackenzie, the council’s executive member for access, also said while he recognised the concerns around the initial impact on roads, the active travel schemes – along with other projects including the £7.9m Harrogate Gateway and Beech Grove Low Traffic Neighbourhood – would have a “cumulative” effect on cutting congestion and carbon emissions.

“All of these schemes are cumulative and eventually will have the effect of making it more attractive for our residents to walk and cycle rather than get in cars. In that way, we can reduce congestion.

“For example, we originally planned a one-way option for Oatlands Drive but several residents said ‘that would make my journey into town by car longer’. All we were doing there was trying to make it more attractive to use a bike or feet to get into town.

“My point is that many of these interventions here will be cumulative and eventually build up an extremely good walking and cycling network.”

A North Yorkshire county councillor who works as a funeral director has claimed it is “absolute rubbish” to say 130,000 people have died of covid in the UK.

Cllr Andrew Jenkinson said deaths had been wrongly recorded and  blamed “inept” doctors.

The current number of UK deaths within 28 days of a positive covid test is 126,592 and 148,125 people had covid mentioned on the death certificate.

The independent councillor said:

“They say 130,000 people passed away, approximately, of covid. To me that is absolute rubbish and I will tell you why it is rubbish.

“It is because as a funeral director, we have [seen] so many cases that have been put down as covid and they have died of other things.

“So we have actually been very, very good, telling [it] as it is but even more [so[ and I think the rest of Europe have lied.

“I bet their figures are a lot higher. The problem with the UK is that we are so honest.”

Cllr Jenkinson was speaking at a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s Scarborough area committee on Friday where he put his concerns to Robert Goodwill, the Conservative MP for Scarborough and Whitby.

Cllr Jenkinson told Mr Goodwill other European countries had “lied” about their death figures.

Read more:

• More than half of Harrogate district population receive covid vaccine
• 10 days without covid death at Harrogate hospital

Cllr Jenkinson, who was elected as a Conservative but who now sits as an independent, went on to claim that doctors had been signing death certificates as covid deaths without ever seeing the patients.

He added:

“First and foremost, you do not need two doctors to certificate a death now since covid came in, you only need one.

“This is not to have a go at anybody but the doctors. I think the doctors in the NHS have been brilliant but the actual doctors in your practices have been quite inept in the early stages.

“There still are problems where they will not come and see the death of a person to clarify everything, so they’re going through and [the cause of death] has been put down as covid.”

UK ‘performing better than other countries’

Mr Goodwill said he runs a green burial site and had been told by one family that “it says covid on the death certificate but we don’t think that actually is the case”.

Mr Goodwill said the true measure for deaths would be excess deaths compared to the five-year average and said the UK was performing better than other European countries.

He said:

“We get a lot of criticism in the UK because we are quite a big country.

“In Belgium the death rate has been way ahead of ours all the way through but because it is a small country, those who choose to write newspaper articles or report in the media would not pick on Belgium because although their figures are higher as a percentage they are lower numerically.”

Conservative MP Mr Goodwill, who is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Funerals and Bereavement, added:

“At the beginning of the pandemic, you may recall we were saying that anybody who’d ever had a positive test who died will be down as a covid death.

“So you could have the disease last March and you could be run over by a bus in July and that would have gone down as a Covid death so they took the decision to say deaths within 28 days of a positive test. But that has problems.”

NHS North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group declined to comment on Cllr Jenkinson’s claims.

Leeds Road will be closed in the evenings for a month to allow for carriageway repairs.

The road will be closed from Princess Royal Way in Pannal to Beech Avenue in Harrogate from tonight until April 30 excluding bank holidays.

To minimise disruption the resurfacing work will be carried out between 6.30pm and 11.30pm.

An eight mile diversion will be in place for the duration of the repairs. Drivers will be sent on the A658 John Metcalf Way on then onto Wetherby Road and York Place.

North Yorkshire County Council is behind the plans and has warned that it may restrict vehicle access to people who live on the stretch of road.

Read more:

• Major Harrogate roadworks begin next week
• Highway boss’s ‘major concern’ over one-lane traffic option for Station Parade

Pedestrians will be able to still use the pavements while works are ongoing.

It is possible that some adjustment to this start date or the duration of the works may be necessary.

This is part of a wider programme of carriageway repairs which started with the first phase in the Old Barber area of Bilton at the start of March. Leadhall Lane is also due for resurfacing work this year.

The Franklin Road area repairs also started just over a week ago and that it is due to finish in early April.

Banks are being urged to consider collaborating in North Yorkshire to create one-stop shops for their services on high streets.

The closure of banks has been keenly felt in the Harrogate district recently.

The Halifax closed in Knaresborough this month, leaving a town with a population of 15,000 without a bank.

This prompted Harrogate Borough Council to conduct a survey on what facilities Knaresborough people would like to see in the town.

Between 2015 and the end of this year a projected 340 bank and building society branches will have closed across Yorkshire, leaving 386 branches.

HSBC recently announced it would shut its branches in Northallerton and Richmond.

A meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s Richmondshire constituency committee heard a scarcity of banks was proving particularly challenging in rural areas, where people suffer with poor broadband and mobile coverage, and there are higher populations of older customers.

One resident, Georgie Sale, told the meeting the branch closures displayed “a lack of understanding in how rural communities work”.

She said as a result of the closures she had been left feeling “terribly vulnerable” while queuing for 30 minutes to pay in the proceeds from a village hall fundraiser at her local post office, which is now located at the back of WH Smiths.

Read more:

• Knaresborough’s last bank to close on Monday
• Harrogate police tell public not to visit banks for the ‘social aspect’

Councillors said customers wanting to use banking services faced horrendous queues in post offices as their staff had been overwhelmed since the banks closed.

The meeting heard how access to bank services for numerous communities was reliant on just one firm continuing to operate.

A council spokesman told the meeting although the council recognised the issues being highlighted and would continue to raise concerns, neither the authority nor the government had any power to stop bank closures.

Rural areas losing out

Following an inquiry into the issue by the authority’s corporate and partnerships scrutiny committee inquiry in 2019, the council carried out a review of sites where cash machines could be located.

However, Liberal Democrat councillor Bryn Griffiths said the issue was far wider than just cash machines and said places where people could deal with someone person to person, particularly for complex transactions, were needed.

He said:

“Not everybody wants to use or trusts IT. I think we should be encouraging banks to get together and knock their heads together and perhaps join up and provide some sort of banking services facility. I do feel we are losing out in the rural areas significantly.

“What we should be doing is encouraging banks to talk and work together to provide services to rural communities. It is clear they are just upping shop and walking away. It is not good enough.”

The meeting was told one-stop shop banks, offering not only personal banking services and loans, but also investment advice, investment vehicles and insurance policies, were common in other countries, such as Sweden, and the meeting heard calls for the county’s MPs to promote the concept to banks.

Conservative Upper Dales councillor Yvonne Peacock said local solutions were needed as every community was different. She added: “That is probably the only way forward. We can’t tell these big banks what to do unfortunately, that is their businesses.”

Over the past month, Harrogate businesses and residents group have responded to a consultation on the town’s £7.9 million Station Gateway proposals.

The plan, outlined by North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority, seeks to encourage sustainable transport in the town centre.

Two of the most contentious proposals are to reduce Station Parade to one lane with cycle routes and a full pedestrianisation of James Street.

The responses over the past week suggest that not everyone is on the same page about what to do with the schemes.

As the consultation closes, the Stray Ferret has looked over the views of organisations, including business groups and climate change bodies, to see if there is any consensus.

Station Parade: one lane or two?

Organisations which represent businesses across Harrogate all agreed that Station Parade needs to be two lanes.

Both Independent Harrogate and Harrogate Business Improvement District have opposed the one lane option.

Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce and Harrogate Civic Society have also opposed the proposal.

Read more:

• James Street pedestrianisation back on the cards in major town centre scheme
• Harrogate cycle groups back one-lane Station Parade plan
• Harrogate BID “urges caution” over Station Gateway project

However, the groups which campaign for climate change and better cycling in the district have backed the one lane option.

Zero Carbon Harrogate has backed the option as a means of reducing traffic in the town centre.

Meanwhile, Harrogate and District Cycle Action (HDCA) have also supported the measure as it would improve cycling infrastructure.

How Station Parade might look under the new “Station Gateway” proposals.

Should James Street be pedestrianised?

The proposal to pedestrianise James Street has been a long and controversial topic in the town.

North Yorkshire County Council had planned to temporarily pedestrianise the street up to Princes Square last year.

However, it backtracked on the proposal after backlash from local businesses. Council officials then promised to delay the issue until 2021.

Now, the topic is back on the table as part of the gateway project.

Two of the groups, Independent Harrogate and Harrogate BID, have renewed their opposition to full pedestrianisation of the street.

Read more:

• Harrogate Civic Society calls for Station Gateway to remain two lanes
• Independent Harrogate fears Station Gateway could damage economy

However, they have said that widening of the pavements and narrowing of the junction at Station Parade to improve pedestrian access would be supported.

Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce has said it would support a “semi-pedestrianisation” of the street.

Meanwhile, both Zero Carbon Harrogate and HDCA back full pedestrianisation.

What happens now?

The consultation into the Station Gateway project has closed.

The project will now consider the responses and move onto the detailed design stage.

Cllr Don Mackenzie, executive councillor for access at North Yorkshire County Council, told the Stray Ferret that the authority had received thousands of submissions to its consultation.

He said:

“We had over 1,000 responses for the Harrogate consultation, far more than the two to three hundred for the schemes in Skipton and Selby. 

“The major question mark is around one lane or two lane and the pedestrianisation of James Street. We want to get cracking on it and we don’t want to hang about.”

Cllr Mackenzie added the consultation results would be published “in the next couple of days”.

According to the Transforming Cities website, any major changes proposed would require another stage of public consultation.

Construction for the schemes is earmarked for 2022.

People are being invited to comment on designs for three schemes to enhance walking and cycling in Harrogate and Knaresborough.

North Yorkshire County Council has received £1,011,750 from the Department for Transport’s Active Travel Fund for four schemes in the country, three of which are in the Harrogate district.

The Harrogate schemes are:

• A59 (Harrogate Road, Knaresborough) between Badger Mount and Maple Close;
• Oatlands Drive between Hookstone Road and Knaresborough Road;
• Victoria Avenue near the County Court, between the A61 (West Park) and Station Parade.

Following the first phase of consultation, North Yorkshire County Council removed a controversial one-way system for the Oatlands Drive scheme. It has been replaced with a 20 mph zone and traffic calming measures in the nearby Saints area.

NYCC says the results of the consultation will be used to develop the draft designs further before a decision is made on which schemes to progress.

Here is a look at the proposals:

Oatlands Drive

• A 20mph zone would be created from Hookstone Drive to York Place.
• Only bicycles would be allowed to enter St Hilda’s Road from Oatlands Drive.
• Motorists would be able to enter St Winifred’s Drive from Oatlands Drive but not exit. Anyone leaving would need to travel via St Hilda’s Road.
• New junction improvements would be created on Hookstone Drive and York Place.

A59 (Harrogate Road, Knaresborough)

• Two 1.5m cycle lanes would be created, which would be separated from the rest of the road by a double white line.
• The speed limit between Badger Mount and Maple Close would be reduced from 50mph to 40mph.
• Centre traffic islands would be removed.
• A crossing near Harrogate Golf Club would be improved for pedestrians and cyclists.

Read more:

• Half of responses ‘strongly oppose’ Oatlands Drive plan
• 1,000 sign petition calling for Oatlands cycling plans to be scrapped

Victoria Avenue, Harrogate

• 1.5m cycle lanes would be created on both sides of the road.
• New pedestrian and cycle crossings would be created.
• Modifications would be made on the West Park and Station Parade junctions.
• A possible staggered zebra crossing and floating bus stop would be created.

County Councillor Don Mackenzie, executive member for access, said:

“We thank all those residents who took part in the first round of consultation on the outline proposals for these four schemes.

“We have listened to that and are trying to reach a broad consensus about the measures we put in place, given that these directly affect people’s movements and their property.

“We think we can come up with something that addresses most of the concerns raised, but that still provides significant benefits for people who are cycling and walking.

“We encourage residents to take part in this latest consultation. Your views are important to us and they will help shape the final designs of these four schemes.”

You can take part in the consultation, which ends on April 12, here. 

Harrogate Bilton and Nidd Gorge is to elect a new county councillor after the death of Geoff Webber.

Mr Webber died this month at the age of 75 after a short illness.

He was involved in local government for 28 years, leading the Liberal Democrat group on North Yorkshire County Council and serving as leader and mayor of Harrogate Borough Council.

The election is scheduled to take place on May 6. Nominations must be submitted by April 8.

The Conservative-controlled county council currently has 53 Conservative councillors, four Labour councillors and four representing the Liberal Democrats. There are also eight North Yorkshire Independent and three independent councillors.

The by-election is being run on behalf of the county council by Harrogate Borough Council.

Read more:

• Geoff Webber’s life was dedicated to helping others
• Tributes paid to ‘gentleman’ councillor Geoff Webber

Councillors will stand outside the former Harrogate Borough Council offices on Crescent Road in Harrogate to pay their respects to Mr Webber on Monday at 11.45am.

More details of the notice of election can be found here.

A group representing 187 Harrogate businesses has expressed concern the proposed £7.9 million Station Gateway could damage the local economy.

In its submission to the gateway consultation, which ends tomorrow, Independent Harrogate said it was ‘broadly supportive’ of the scheme’s aim to promote sustainable transport.

But it added Harrogate’s hospitality and retail sector was in a ‘fragile and critical state’ and it had ‘serious concerns’ about the scheme’s economic impact.

Robert Ogden, writing on behalf of Independent Harrogate, said it therefore opposed plans to reduce traffic on Station Parade to one lane, or to pedestrianise James Street. He added the group believed East Parade to be the best location for cycling lanes.

The submission said the town needed an updated infrastructure masterplan rather than ‘pocket planning’. Such a plan should include park and ride schemes, numerous electric car charging points and extensive cycling routes, it added.

It said Harrogate Borough Council‘s current masterplan, devised in 2016, was out of date and doesn’t cater for outlying villages, which don’t have regular bus services and don’t benefit from the focus on cycling. The submission said:

“Both North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council are effectively discriminating against village residents and creating a playground for Harrogate residents only, many of whom will happily get into their cars and drive to work in Leeds and other areas.”

Read more:

• Harrogate Civic Society calls for Station Gateway to remain two lanes
• Call for public to engage with Harrogate Station Gateway plans

The submission said Independent Harrogate was not anti-cycling, adding it would support initiatives such as Cycling Sundays, whereby some central Harrogate streets were closed to traffic to encourage walking and cycling. It added:

“This cautious approach would help gauge the appetite for cycling in Harrogate without too much detrimental economic impact.”

But overall it said town centre visitors arriving by car ‘need easy access and somewhere convenient and close to the shops/cafes/restaurants to park’, adding:

“To ignore the considerable income that visitors bring will be hugely damaging and they should not be excluded from any surveys, which sadly appears to be the case at the moment.”

The government’s Transforming Cities Fund has provided funding for the gateway project, to improve the design of the town and encourage more sustainable transport.

North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority are delivering the initiative.

Read the full letter from Independent Harrogate here.

The flag will be flying half-mast at County Hall tomorrow when North Yorkshire takes part in tomorrow’s covid National Day of Reflection.

The end of life charity Marie Curie is organising the day, one year on from the start of the first lockdown.

North Yorkshire has suffered more than 1,100 covid-related deaths since the pandemic began.

Across the county, 23 community support organisations and an army of volunteers has worked with the council to support all those in need. Volunteers have given 110,000 hours of their time since last March to deliver shopping, cook meals and deliver medication.

They have also made more than 56,000 befriending calls and telephone check-ins.

Helen Flynn, executive director at Nidderdale Plus, one of the community support organisations, said:

“At the time when you heard about places in Europe going into lockdown it seemed odd, but very quickly we were in a lockdown as well. We had to act really quickly to wrap our arms round the community.

“I feel that we’ve responded to that need really well and through doing that we’ve all learned so much more about our communities.”

Syrian refugees in Northallerton played a key role in the pandemic response by taking on volunteer roles.

The work by staff at schools and early years centres has also been commended by the county council.

Since last March, library staff and volunteers have made sure the home library service has reached those struggling to get out and about. More than 270,000 e-books have been loaned.

County council leader Cllr Carl Les said:

“It is a time to remember the challenges we have faced in the past year and the commitment, innovation and kindness of our communities that has seen us rise to meet those challenges and to support those residents who have needed extra help.

“Necessity is the mother of invention, and I think that as well as bringing out the best in people the pandemic has been a catalyst for incredible innovation in the way vital services have continued to be delivered and revolutionised.”

Read more:

• Over 70,000 people receive first dose of covid vaccine in North Yorkshire. 
• Fifty tonnes of food donated in Ripon since pandemic began. 

Council leaders urged residents not to let down their guard despite the lifting of restrictions in the coming months.

County council chief executive Richard Flinton said:

“As we use the day of reflection of look back on this turbulent twelve months, I thank people again for their tremendous effort and remind everyone to continue following the rules and remembering hands, face and space.

“We have come too far to allow a better tomorrow to slip away from us now so please keep going.”

Richard Ellis inserted several covenants into the deed of gift when he presented the statue to the town, requiring that if any attempt were made to move it, the land should be offered back to the Ellis family.