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.
A second petition demanding the Harrogate Gateway project is halted has been delivered to council bosses behind the £10.9 million scheme.
In what marks another sign of growing opposition against the major plans to reshape key parts of the town centre, the petition from Harrogate Residents Association has been backed by 714 signatures and will be debated at a council meeting on January 6.
This comes just days after the results of a latest council-run survey revealed 55% of 1,320 respondents feel ‘negative’ about the project, while 39% feel ‘positive’.
The remaining 6% were either ‘neutral’ or said they didn’t know.
North Yorkshire County Council – which is leading on the project – declined to comment on the latest petition.
It also did not say whether the opposition to the project could mean key parts of it – including the part-time pedestrianisation of James Street and reducing Station Parade to one-lane traffic – are scrapped or changed.
In its petition, Harrogate Residents Association said its main concerns are that the proposed road changes would be bad for business and only divert traffic elsewhere – something council bosses have argued against.
The residents association said:
“All we need to do is look at Oxford Street, Cambridge Street and Beulah Street to see the detrimental effects pedestrianisation has on shops, businesses and the appearance of our town.
“We need a flow of people through the town to support business, not to cut it off.
“These visitors bring a substantial amount of income to hospitality and retail without which we fear it would be terribly damaging to the town’s economy.”
Read more:
- Harrogate council’s plan to tackle climate change criticised
- Stray Views: Let’s get behind the Station Gateway
- Majority are negative towards Harrogate Station Gateway, consultation reveals
The residents association – which previously petitioned against Harrogate’s first Low Traffic Neighbourhood on Beech Grove – also claimed cycle lanes are not the answer to improving sustainable transport. It said:
“We welcome improved cycling provisions across the district to encourage people to walk and cycle, however, what we are opposed to is anything that could have a detrimental impact on our livelihoods, environment, businesses, conference trade and town as a whole
“Wholesale introduction of cycle lanes through the town is not necessarily the answer. Harrogate has steep roads and the climate is not always warm and sunny – too often it is cold, windy and wet.”
The petition will be debated at a virtual meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Constituency Committee on January 6 when members of the residents association and council officials are expected to speak.
This comes after the Granville Road Area Residents Association previously delivered a petition against the Gateway project to Harrogate Borough Council which is supporting the scheme.
As well as changes to James Street and Station Parade, the plans also include improvements to Station Square and the One Arch underpass with the aim of providing better links to the train and bus station.
Cllr Don Mackenzie, executive member for access at North Yorkshire County Council, recently said the responses to the latest survey were now being considered before designs are finalised and recommendations are presented to the council’s executive in the New Year.
He also argued sustainable transport measures were well supported during the Harrogate Congestion Study – a major survey held in 2019 when thousands of residents said a greener town centre was needed. He said:
“The clear message sent to us by members of the public then was that they wanted more walking and cycling infrastructure, greater support and use of public transport, and encouragement to leave cars at home when making short journeys.
“It was made clear that the best way to combat congestion was to change travel behaviour, to walk, cycle and use public transport more often.
“At a time when climate change is a global priority, these proposals will play a part in improving the environment in the town centre by encouraging less use of motor vehicles.”
The Gateway project is being funded by the government’s Transforming Cities Fund, with a deadline for the money to be spent by early 2023.
If approved, construction could start in spring 2022.
Three Harrogate business groups have called for the Harrogate Station Gateway scheme to be halted after the latest consultation found a majority was opposed to the scheme.
The results, published yesterday, revealed that of 1,320 people who replied to an online survey, 55% feel negatively towards the initiative, 39% feel positively and five per cent are neutral. One per cent said they didn’t know.
North Yorkshire County Council, which is leading on the scheme, is set to decide whether to proceed next month.
But a statement issued yesterday by the county council suggested it and Harrogate Borough Council, which is also behind the scheme, remain in favour.
A joint statement today from Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, Harrogate Business Improvement District and Independent Harrogate, accused those behind the project of ignoring criticism and urged them to “put the brakes on”.
Read more:
- Majority are negative towards Harrogate Station Gateway, consultation reveals
- Harrogate businesses consider legal challenge to Station Gateway
The statement said:
“Despite concerns raised by businesses, the civic society and residents who will be directly affected by the proposed scheme, it’s full steam ahead.
“As we have said on many previous occasions that we welcome investment in the town centre and encourage active transport, and during the first round of consultation we put forward a number of alternative suggestions regarding the cycle lanes, James Street and the A61, which have been disregarded. Negative comments are also ignored.
“In the summer, we conducted our own poll, and the majority of those who responded were against reducing the A61 from Cheltenham Parade to Station Bridge to a single carriageway, and pedestrianising James Street.
“At last month’s Chamber meeting, an overwhelming number of those present were not in favour of the proposals.
“With covid having had such a massive impact on business, and our hospitality sector once again suffering due to the latest Omicron strain, can our town centre economy endure a further 12 months of disruption to deliver this project?
“We ask the county council to put the brakes on this scheme, take into account our views, and come back with a revised plan that the majority of business and the public will wholeheartedly support.”
What is the Harrogate Station Gateway?
The Harrogate scheme is one of three projects worth a combined £42m in Harrogate, Skipton and Selby funded by the Leeds City Region Transforming Cities Fund, which encourages cycling and walking.
They are being delivered in partnership by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council and Selby District Council.
The Harrogate scheme aims to make the town centre more attractive and encourage cycling and walking.
The most contentious aspects are plans to reduce a section of Station Parade to single lane traffic, part-pedestrianise James Street and re-route some traffic off Cheltenham Parade into neighbouring streets.
If the scheme goes ahead, work will begin by the middle of next year.
Majority are negative towards Harrogate Station Gateway, consultation revealsThe majority of people feel negatively towards the £10.9 million Harrogate Station Gateway scheme, the latest consultation has revealed.
The results, published today, reveal that of 1,320 people who replied to an online survey, 55% feel negatively, 39% positively and five per cent neutral. One per cent said they didn’t know.
A decision on whether to proceed with the scheme looks set to be made next month.
Although most people do not support it, and there is the threat of legal action from businesses opposed to the scheme, the councils backing the scheme may decide to proceed.
Don Mackenzie, executive member for access at North Yorkshire County Council, said a report would be sent to the council’s executive, probably next month, recommending what action to take.
But he said he was still to be persuaded that “an £11 million investment in the town centre needs to be turned away”.
Cllr Mackenzie said he didn’t envisage many changes if the scheme does proceed, although he suggested cycle storage and access to some businesses affected by the initiative could be amended.
He added the scheme acted on the wishes of the 2019 Harrogate Congestion Study, which 15,500 residents took part in and revealed strong support for better walking and cycling infrastructure, public transport and encouragement to leave cars at home when making short journeys and opposition to building a relief road.
The main concerns
This was the second round of consultation on the scheme, which aims to make the town centre more attractive and encourage cycling and walking.
The most contentious aspects are plans to reduce a section of Station Parade to single lane traffic, part-pedestrianise James Street and re-route some traffic off Cheltenham Parade into neighbouring streets.
Read more:
- Harrogate businesses consider legal challenge to Station Gateway
- Stray Views: Station Gateway will benefit far more people than cyclists

Don Mackenzie talking at the Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce meeting.
Many of those who responded positively to the consultation were motivated by benefits for walking and cycling, better use of public space and making the town centre a more attractive place for residents and visitors.
Most of those who responded negatively were concerned about the impact on traffic flows, congestion, air quality and local businesses, while some local householders expressed the view that vehicles would be diverted on to their residential streets.
Councillor Phil Ireland, Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet member for carbon reduction and sustainability, said:
“This scheme offers a fantastic opportunity to secure the largest investment in to Harrogate town centre for 30 years, revitalising the town centre for the benefit of residents, visitors and businesses and ensuring that it is sustainable and can respond to changing consumer demands and expectations.
“The feedback provided during the course of both public consultations is really important to ensuring that we get the best scheme possible and I am grateful to everyone who took the time to respond.”
The full report on the findings of the Harrogate consultation, which ran from 18 October to 12 November, can be read here.
What is the Harrogate Station Gateway?
The Harrogate scheme is one of three projects worth a combined £42m in Harrogate, Skipton and Selby funded by the Leeds City Region Transforming Cities Fund, which encourages cycling and walking.
They are being delivered in partnership by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council and Selby District Council.
If the scheme goes ahead, work will begin by the middle of next year.
Stray Views: Valley Gardens was the perfect place for Xmas market
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.
Valley Gardens was perfect place for Christmas market
I’ve just walked up through Valley Gardens from town and want to say that the sun colonnade is the perfect place for the artisan market! It’s sheltered, on hard paving, atmospheric and includes so many stalls.
What an improvement on the overcrowded, muddy Montpelier location. Well done Harrogate Borough Council!
Jenny Thompson, Harrogate
Read more:
- Foxy Antiques wins Harrogate Christmas Shop Window Competition
- Harrogate businesses consider legal challenge to Station Gateway
Bikes aren’t an option for many older people
Last week’s letter from Malcolm Margolis makes many comments regarding clear and clean streets for the elderly to walk around in traffic free conditions but fails to tell the elderly how to easily come into Harrogate town centre from outlying districts without coming by car. Most of the elderly have no bus or train services and riding bikes is not an option.
Nor does he mention how we carry our purchases home. His last comment, ‘I believe it’s time to stop HGVs from using many of our urban streets without restriction day or night’, destroys his credibility. Some 90% of goods are delivered by lorries and have been for the past 50 years. How else does he think shops can be supplied ?
Brian Hicks, Pateley Bridge
The council needs an app so more people can report accidents
I recently fell over a raised paving stone in the Valley Gardens sun colonnade and broke my arm, bruised my face and split my lip. I telephoned Age Concern to ask if there is a mobile or iPad app to report incidents to the council as I think it would have been very useful.
In Australia, I have been told that there is an app called Snap Send Solve to report such as accidents as well as falling trees and potholes.
Does anyone know of the existence of a similar app in the UK?
For older people and people living on their own, this type of technology would be very useful.
The app forwards details of an incident or accident to the correct council by simply pressing a button.
Any information on this subject would be gratefully received.
Jane Blayney, 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.
Stray Views: Station Gateway will benefit far more people than cyclists
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 will benefit far more people than cyclists
It’s good to read letters in Stray Views from Andrew Willoughby, Peter Whittingham and others in favour of the Station Gateway project, countering what in my opinion are unfounded fears about a great opportunity for significant investment to improve the town centre.
The Station Gateway scheme is not ‘to benefit cyclists’. The suggestion by some that the only way into town will be on a bicycle is utter nonsense. The scheme is aimed at ‘improving the public realm’, making the town centre a better place for people to spend time in, and to make it a safer and more pleasant place in which to walk and cycle.
It will mean less traffic, which scientists and governments recognise is essential if we are serious about tackling the climate crisis.
Objectors claim, with great confidence but no evidence, that reducing Station Parade to one lane is sure to cause massive congestion. I don’t agree. I think the conclusion of the county council’s consultants, based on pre-covid data, makes sense, which is that journey times will only be marginally longer even at peak times. What we are more likely to get is traffic evaporation. As this 2019 study found, ‘one of the best kept, and counter intuitive secrets in urban planning [is that] less road space doesn’t increase congestion but leads to a drop in vehicle numbers’.
This is what appears to be happening in the centre of Leeds where a far more radical reallocation of road space than is planned for Harrogate is well underway.
I ran Argos Sports in Beulah Street for 30 years. I believe that the noisy minority of local businesses opposing the scheme don’t know what’s good for them.
They are being offered a £10.9m investment to improve and bring more residents and visitors into the town centre yet they keep their heads firmly buried in the past pretending that their customers must be able to park outside their shops, which they can rarely do even now. Station Gateway will make the town centre more successful, and a much less polluted and more pleasant environment in which to spend time and to go to work.
I fully agree with those who want a feasibility study to look at making West Park and Parliament Street two-way, and with making 20mph rather than 30mph the default speed limit in our town centre and elsewhere.
The local authorities are contributing massively to our traffic problem by allowing one development after another, thousands of new homes, to be built which are car dependent by design, too far from town to walk, poorly served by public transport, and with no useful cycle infrastructure.
I also believe it’s time to stop HGVs from using many of our urban streets without restriction day and night.
Malcolm Margolis BEM, Harrogate
Read more:
- ‘Station Gateway consultation a whitewash’, claim Harrogate petitioners
- Christmas Events: diary of festivities in the Harrogate district
Businesses are right to be worried about Station Gateway
According to North Yorkshire County Council, the outcome of its congestion study was to provide more sustainable transport. It would appear its meaning of sustainable is walking and cycling.
In my view it means frequent, affordable, viable all year transport for all and not just a minority. A total of 22% of the population is over the age of 65.
Have they forgotten the additional congestion and stop-starting which will arise if Station Parade is reduced to one lane? It is a classified major trunk road.
North Yorkshire County Council obviously considered 12 weeks in normal circumstances was required for consultation on the relief road but four weeks during lockdown when residents were advised to stay at home sufficient for the Gateway project.
I understand the Gateway scheme, if it goes ahead ,will start in spring 2022 and take 12 months. North Yorkshire County Council also intend to replace Oak Beck bridge on Skipton Road, with the disruption lasting six months, starting January 2022
It is not surprising that many businesses are concerned about their future.
Catherine Alderson, Harrogate
Gateway is ill-conceived and needs scrapping
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.
“Why can’t we have more speed limit signs up?”
The accident (featured in the Stray Ferret) is just one of many to come. I have been trying for the last 3 years to make the police in Harrogate, plus the Harrogate council, know of the massive problem with people speeding in this town.
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“Time people in favour of the Gateway plan came forward”
The question is often asked, “How should we reduce the vehicle traffic in Harrogate Town Centre?”. To me that is the wrong question. The real question is how can we reduce all vehicle traffic? We need to reduce vehicle traffic everywhere.
We need to travel less. Less journeys. Shorter journeys. And shift towards busses, trains, cycling and walking.
Why? Well because with a bigger population and increasing traffic we are polluting the global atmosphere and causing climate change.
The Gateway plan is something I welcome. It’s time that views in favour came forward, and I think there are plenty of reasons to favour the Gateway proposals. It will bring the centre of Harrogate back to being pleasant. Pleasant to walk, pleasant to cycle and pleasant to shop.
As a Knaresborough lad my first memories of Station Parade were being intrigued by the big statue. I was five years old, and my eldest brother carefully explained who Queen Victoria was and why her statue was there. There was two-way traffic then, it was 1959, but there was not a lot of traffic. It was a nice place to be. Another memory was in the late sixties and I was cycling as a young teenager. By then there was more traffic and the car was king.
Move forward through the nineteen nineties and the two lanes in one direction were becoming like a race-track, with pedestrians at various places waiting to cross. Not a nice place at all. So the thought of a single lane, one-way for drivers in Station Parade is very pleasant. No more cut and thrust with cars accelerating to stop the car alongside from getting past.
Being able to cycle either way will be pleasant, and with bus and railway stations being so close there will be so many ways to arrive at this pleasant area. With no traffic on James Street it will also become a pleasant area to wander, with more shops to browse and buy. This certainly seems the way forward to me, and should benefit everyone.
Andrew Willoughby, Knaresborough
‘We need to plan for a largely care free future’
Just wanted to say how much I support the comments made in the letter last week regarding the Station Gateway redevelopment and the potential for change it represents.
I continue to be amazed at the volume and speed of traffic in and around the town. We need prominent speed signs, a 20mph town wide zone, speed enforcement cameras and many more pedestrian controlled crossings.
We need to plan for a largely car free future with more reliance on public transport, cycling and walking.
Peter Whittingham, 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.
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 best thing to happen to Harrogate for years
The Station Gateway plans are the first glimmer of hope I have felt in my seven years of living in Harrogate town (aka ‘my car’s bigger than your car’ Town).
A glimmer of hope that we just might have a lovely, friendly, safe, human, caring, bustling, fun town buried somewhere here. Buried beneath the surging, charging, horrific madness that is currently ‘our town’.
We have dual carriageways with parking down both sides. The humans lurk, unwanted, forgotten, ignored, often frightened, on a little strip of tarmac potentially a mere few metres from where they want to be. As for cycling. You’d have to be mad.
Nowhere have I seen a town so well-suited to walking, running, cycling and generally playing out, that instead chooses to destroy itself in deference to its rich, entitled, car-addicted populous.
The Station Gateway is just the start…
Ruth, Walker, runner, cyclist, mother and musician of Harrogate
Ripon needs a First World War walking tour
I read with interest your article about the installation of the memorial at Hell Wath nature reserve, which was the site of the WW1 army camp in Ripon.
I was born and grew up in Ripon and have spent a lot of my adult life there, but I had to ask a fellow walker for help to point me in the right direction to find it when we went to have a look at it. It would have been far easier if you had included directions on how to find it in your article.
It would also have been useful to have had more information there about the camp at Hellwath and its significance to WW1 history.
A walking route pointing out points of interest would be both interesting and educational to all age groups. Perhaps some of those metal figures could be placed in key areas of interest. Considering the great lose of life in WW1, it would be a fitting tribute to those that served and were billeted there. Most families were touched in some way by the war at the time, mine included.
Geoff Fletcher, North Stainley
Read more:
- Stray Views: Scrap the Station Gateway in its current form
- Harrogate businesses consider legal challenge to Station Gateway
- Stray Views: Station Gateway ‘a waste of money’
Time to deal with these dangerous gases
It’s been common practice for some time now to vent to the surface gases from land that has previously been a landfill site.
The gas that is emitted is typically methane (CH4), which we know to be significantly more dangerous to the climate than carbon dioxide (CO2). Some studies rate it as 100 times more powerful a climate change gas.
There are sites in Harrogate that currently vent this gas to the atmosphere: Stonefall Park and parts of the Great Yorkshire Showground, amongst others.
Has the time come to deal with this harmful gas in a more environmentally friendly way?
Robert Newton, Pannal
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.
Stray Views: Scrap the Station Gateway in its current formStray 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.
Scrap the Station Gateway
The Station Gateway project should be scrapped entirely in its present form even if this means losing out on the current funding. The current proposal is a highway engineer’s solution to a problem that simply does not focus on the important issues from an holistic point of view.
It is ‘pocket planning’ and requires an urban design-led concept which addresses all concerns, operating less on the imposed ‘we know best’ principle by the project leaders, and more on engagement with all sectors, especially those who care and whose livelihoods depend on Harrogate.
It needs to be a replacement vision with the real support of the businesses and people of our town. It needs to be one which above all addresses the problem of through traffic and the serious consideration of a park and ride service. Until this happens there is no successful considered alternative solution to Harrogate’s problems
A replacement funding stream is likely to materialise for a replacement vision and one which has the real support of the businesses and people of Harrogate. Once again, as with the Otley Road cycle route, the current proposal is another case of ‘putting the cart before the horse’. In other words, ‘grab the money while we can and then, oh, what shall we do with it?’ without having any masterplan in place.
If the current leadership is not capable of accepting this then I consider we, the citizens of Harrogate, should call for a vote of no confidence in the current project leadership. This could be arranged through an online petition.
Barry Adams, Harrogate
Read more:
- Harrogate Army Foundation College instructor demoted for punching teenage soldiers
- ‘Station Gateway consultation a whitewash’, claim Harrogate petitioners
Harrogate should have had a bypass
This multi-million pound moving of the deckchairs around the Titanic will only serve as a timely reminder of the dismal failure to deliver a bypass (ably aided and abetted by our member of parliament) and the absurd notion that 95% of Harrogate’s traffic is “local”. Never mind, the Skipton and Wetherby roads can cope, as ever.
Nick Hudson, The Saints, 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.
‘Station Gateway consultation a whitewash’, claim Harrogate petitioners
Harrogate residents described the Station Gateway consultation as a “whitewash” when they delivered a petition today.
Consultation on the revised plans for the £10.9 million scheme, which would see Station Parade reduced to single lane traffic and James Street partly pedestrianised, closes today.
Five members of Granvillle Road Area Residents Association took the petition to Harrogate Borough Council‘s Knapping Mount office at lunchtime today.
They are concerned that re-routing traffic off Cheltenham Parade and Cheltenham Mount through the nearby residential streets where they live will increase traffic and pollution and make it more difficult to park.
Dan Harper, executive officer economy and transport at Harrogate Borough Council, received the petition, which had about 140 signatures. He declined to be photographed by the Stray Ferret.
The residents expressed frustration over the consultation process, claiming it was difficult to get hold of information or people to address their concerns.
Catherine Ward-Brown, who lives on Cheltenham Mount, where traffic will be diverted if Cheltenham Mount is made one-way, said:
“They are trying to force commercial traffic on to residential streets and ignoring valid points made. They are hellbent on sticking to their views. It hasn’t been a consultation — it’s been a whitewash.”
Andrew Jones ‘not willing to engage’
Antonia Lowe questioned why Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, had not meaningfully replied to residents’ questions about the scheme.
“He was willing to engage with the process to relocate the post office but isn’t willing to engage with us.”
Rachael Inchboard said:
“He is passing the buck and refusing to engage. He has a duty to the Harrogate residents who voted him in to engage with this at the earliest opportunity. We would like to see him come to Granville Road.”
Read more:
- Harrogate businesses consider legal challenge to Station Gateway
- Station Gateway: the story so far of the £10.9m scheme
The petitioners are considering paying to monitor air quality in their local streets as well as launching an online fundraising appeal to pay for an environmental impact assessment, which Harrogate Borough Council did not deem necessary.
The Stray Ferret has approached Mr Jones for comment.
What is the Harrogate Station Gateway?
The Harrogate scheme is one of three projects worth a combined £42m in Harrogate, Skipton and Selby funded by the Leeds City Region Transforming Cities Fund, which encourages cycling and walking.
They are being delivered in partnership by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council and Selby District Council.
A consultation on the revised designs ends today. It is anticipated that work in Harrogate will begin by the middle of next year.
To take part in the online consultation, click here.
Harrogate residents deliver petition opposing Station Gateway
Harrogate residents will hand in a petition today opposing the Station Gateway on the final day of consultation on the £10.9 million scheme.
Members of Granvillle Road Area Residents Association organised the signatures in response to fears that re-routing the A61 will increase traffic in nearby residential streets, such as Granville Road, Back Granville Road, Mount Parade, Back Cheltenham Mount and Strawberry Dale Avenue.
Rachael Inchboard, a member of the association, said about 200 of the 250 homes affected by the changes had signed the petition, which will be presented to Harrogate Borough Council.
After the consultation ends, councils supporting the initiative, led by North Yorkshire County Council, are expected to produce a final report summarising consultation outcomes and outlining the next steps.
Businesses in the town are considering applying for a judicial review to halt the scheme.
Read more:
- Harrogate businesses consider legal challenge to Station Gateway
- Station Gateway: the story so far of the £10.9m scheme
- Harrogate residents form group to fight £10.9m Station Gateway
North Yorkshire County Councillor Don Mackenzie, the executive member for access, reiterated his support for the scheme. He said:
“I do not believe that the gateway scheme for Harrogate should now be dropped because of opposition from certain businesses.
“Whilst their views, and indeed the local town centre economy, are very important to us, there are also the views of many other sectors and persons to consider. The findings of the latest round of consultation will be important to us too, as are the many thousands of views expressed in the Harrogate congestion study public engagement.
“I have nothing further to say about legal action. If an individual wishes to begin such a process, we shall be ready to respond.”
What is the Harrogate Station Gateway?
The Harrogate scheme is one of three projects worth a combined £42m in Harrogate, Skipton and Selby funded by the Leeds City Region Transforming Cities Fund, which encourages cycling and walking.
They are being delivered in partnership by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council and Selby District Council.
A consultation on the revised designs ends today. It is anticipated that work in Harrogate will begin by the middle of next year.
