Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam has raised concerns the £7.8 million Station Gateway project could lead to the town’s Queen Victoria monument being moved.

The white marble monument on Station Parade was given to the town in 1887 and has looked down on many generations since.

But a consultation on the proposed gateway project, which would radically alter Station Parade, asks people for their views on moving the monument.

The consultation says:

“We have proposed changes to the way the space around the monument is used.

“These changes do not require the monument be moved but we would welcome people’s thoughts on whether this is the best location for the monument.

“We appreciate this monument is very important to the community and any plans to move it would require extensive and meaningful engagement with the public and key stakeholders.”

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• Call for public to engage with Harrogate Station Gateway plans

Mr Neesam said he understood that in 1887, when Richard Ellis presented the statue, he inserted several covenants into the deed of gift, requiring that if any attempt were made to move the statue, the land should be offered back to the Ellis family.

It is not known whether the Ellis family still has any links with Harrogate but any attempt to move it could be problematic.

Karl Battersby, director of business and environmental services at North Yorkshire County Council, which is one of the councils behind the gateway project, said:

“The proposals put forward for consultation do not require the Queen Victoria monument to be moved.

“It is not our intention to move the monument, nor is it necessary to the scheme.”

Asked whether he was satisfied with the statement, Mr Neesam said:

“I am not re-assured by this statement. If they have no intention of moving the statue, why invite public opinion?”

The best way forward for any society that has come through a dark time is to offer a vision of hope and recovery – and more importantly, a straight line to it.

After the terrible years of the Great War of 1914-1918, the authorities in Harrogate asked the best people qualified to come up with answers on how the town should recover – the people themselves.

Of the several local organisations to respond, none had better knowledge than the Harrogate Medical Society, which after discussions with other groups, such as hoteliers, traders, residents and local societies, published a list of suggestions to aid recovery and promote the attractiveness of the town.

At the same time, the council asked mineral well expert Professor Smithells to select essential aspects of his wartime study of the town’s mineral waters, to assist the initial recovery process of the town’s main business – the spa.

Within weeks of the November 1918 armistice, the recommendations were ready, and their essential points were that Harrogate must be made more attractive to visitors to ensure the economy not only survived, but prospered.

Post-1918 blueprint

Chief among these recommendations were:

[1] Shopping should be made more agreeable by protecting shoppers from sometimes severe climatic conditions, such as excess rain or sunshine, and that the ‘colonnading’ or erection of glazed pavement canopies along Royal Parade, Montpellier Parade, both sides of Parliament Street, both sides of James Street and Crescent Road would not only achieve this, but would add greatly to the town’s beauty as well as the comfort and convenience of visitors, and benefit of shopkeepers.

[2] Landscape improvements to Crescent Gardens; Station Square, where recent building development had been of a tawdry nature; the circular garden in front of the Prospect Hotel which could receive a permanent war memorial; the gardens in Victoria Avenue. Every one of these improvements had been implemented within 10 years.

[3] Better use to be made of the The Royal Hall’s gardens. Here, several hard court tennis courts were constructed, that allowed the Davis Cup matches to be held there.

[4] More regular music recitals in the gardens of the Royal Hall and Crescent Gardens. Again, this was implemented, especially after the 1933 completion of the Sun Pavilion.

[5] Improved lavatory accommodation, particularly on Harlow Moor, in Low Harrogate and Station Square. Again implemented, with about six new sets of conveniences being provided across the town.

Other recommendations included: tighter regulation of cab and taxi fares, better control of the dust nuisance, a continuance of the excellent standard of advertising the town, improving regularity of Pullman service, and the erection of a new Pump Room to the right of the entrance to Valley Gardens – this last, perhaps fortunately, was eventually abandoned.

Bottling mineral water

In 1920, a school for training staff at the Spa was opened, which brought considerable positive publicity to the town, and which succeeded so well that other spas were soon sending their staff to Harrogate for training.

In the past, the bottling of Harrogate’s mineral waters had been an often contentious matter, with opponents arguing that if people could buy Harrogate Water in Aberdeen, Bristol or Manchester, they would not need to visit the town and would thus deprive the economy of significant income.

But supporters argued that bottling would open up a large market by making the waters available to those who would never be able to travel to Harrogate, and that in addition, bottling was a wonderful opportunity to publicise the town’s name. But in 1919, the corporation changed tack, and resolved on 21st January 1919 to establish a table water industry.

Although some of these recommendations were never achieved, many were, and this gave people a sense of vision and hope for the future, much positive publicity being provided by the national press, for which Harrogate had become ‘the Nation’s Spa’.

Post-1945 blueprint

At the end of the Second World War, Harrogate faced completely new problems, most of which arose from the acute shortages of materials necessary to aid reconstruction, and the decline of the British spa industry that came after the introduction on July 5 1948 of the new National Health Service.

Despite these barriers, Harrogate’s council investigated several proposals to secure the spa economy, and encourage the growth of new industry, including office and retail development, and above all to create an atmosphere of hope.

As all of the town’s hotels had been requisitioned during the war, the council decided on August 13 1945 to petition the Minister of Works to start the de-requisitioning process, so that the town’s accommodation business could be revived. On June 3 1946, the council decided to spend £100 on erecting a fountain, to emphasise the importance of water to Harrogate.

October 1946 saw the council encouraging the formation of a ‘Friends of Harrogate’, which would strive to enhance and promote the town. In July 1947, Harrogate’s brilliant publicity and entertainments manager advised the council that during the previous six months, 33 conferences had brought between eight to 10,000 visitors to the town, and that this was the way forward.

Then, in 1949, the public learned that Harrogate was set to become the national centre for the study of arthritis and rheumatism, with visits from the Minister of Health planned. At the same time, the fringes of the Stray were planted with bulbs and fairy lights hung in its trees, to add to the beauty of the area.

More attractions were planned, and on June 27 1949 the council resolved to start a scheme to convert the Royal Pump Room into a museum to attract visitors. These were but a few of the steps taken by the council to revive the town’s economy and give people a sense of optimism.

Tinkering with one-way systems

Now, we have talk about tinkering with further one-way systems for traffic, which is inherited from the council’s foolish 1970 one-way experiment that interrupted the two-way flow between Spacey Houses and New Park with one-way flow between West Park and Parliament Street, an action which forced through traffic into King’s Road, Cheltenham Parade, Station Parade, and York Place. This is why they are still trying to make something of Station Parade. This was why all the trees have vanished from King’s Road to Cheltenham Crescent to Station Parade (see photo).

Cheltenham Parade copyright Walker-Neesam Archive

The plan for this new Harrogate ‘Gateway’ talks about the Station Square area being a gateway, something it always was, until the council allowed the railway station to be destroyed in 1964, as my accompanying photo shows.

Station Square copyright Walker-Neesam Archive

Afterwards, when architect David Cullearn designed a public event arena outside the Victoria Centre with a fountain (see photo) it was the council that weakly allowed a new owner to infill the arena, destroy the fountains, and use the new arid forecourt to display cars or host fast food stalls with their backs to the main exit of Harrogate Railway Station.

Victoria Centre copyright Walker-Neesam Archive

The latest drawings of the proposed gateway also show the Victoria Centre with a canopy around it, a beautiful original feature (see photo) which was destroyed with the council’s authorisation when they allowed the then-owner to extend the ground floor retail space, which wrecked architect Cullearn’s useful covered walkway.

Victoria Centre copyright Walker-Neesam Archive

Where’s the vision now?

Today, as we see signs that the terrible pandemic is diminishing, Harrogate is crying out for a vision, for a sense that the town’s leadership has a solid and achievable vision for our future, and a vision based on the interest of the whole community, rather than narrow party political lines. Does this vision exist, and if it does, is it being communicated to the entire population?

In my capacity as a historian, I hear from many Harrogate people, and know after long experience that there are many in our town who neither know nor care about the difference between the district and the county council, and are unfamiliar with the work of local government, other perhaps than that they have to support it financially. These – I suggest – are the people the vision needs to reach. And the vision should give inspiration and hope for the future of our much-loved locality.

Malcolm Neesam,
[Illustrations copyright Walker-Neesam Archive].

The first consultation event into Harrogate’s Station Gateway project last night saw  concerns raised about the need for more cycling lanes as well as an increase in anti-social behaviour.

The online event enabled people to ask questions about the £7.8 million town centre project, which is being funded from the government’s £317 million Transforming Cities Fund.

Representatives from Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council, as well as engineering consultants, discussed the plans and answered questions.

If the current proposals are approved, the area around the town’s bus and train stations on Station Parade will look vastly different.

Traffic would be reduced a single lane to create more space for cycling, walking and public transport.

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

One member of the public asked if the design and reduced amount of traffic would increase anti-social behaviour.

Aidan Rayner, Transforming Cities Fund delivery project manager at North Yorkshire County Council, said:

“One of the main parts of this proposal is to improve public experience. We don’t believe that these plans would impact public safety”.

Read more:

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• Land on Wetherby Road will become Stray land in exchange for grass verges on Otley Road.

Another member of the public asked what evidence there was to support the increased demand for cycling. In response, Matthew Roberts an economy and transport officer at Harrogate Borough Council, said:

“Increasing recognition of the climate emergency and the need to make healthier choices is generating more demand. Faster cycling routes, I think, will mean more will choose to cycle.

“We have 79,000 people living within a 20-minute cycle ride to the town centre.”

Mr Roberts said high streets were changing and Harrogate needed to adapt to continue attracting visitors.

Those behind the proposals said the suggestions at the event would be taken forward in further discussions.

A second public consultation is due to take place next week on March 10.

The plans will then be considered in detail before work begins. Mr Rayner said he hoped construction could begin in spring next year.

He added disruption would be limited as much as possible.

Residents are being urged to engage with a consultation to help shape the future of Harrogate town centre.

The Station Gateway project could see funding of £7.8m spent transforming the bus and rail interchange and the public space around them.

Proposals also include reducing Station Parade to just one lane for cars, allowing more space for cycling lanes, to encourage more people to use public transport or to walk or cycle.

The plans have been put forward by North Yorkshire County and Harrogate Borough Councils, in partnership with West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Craven and Selby district councils, as part of a £31m grant awarded through the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF). As well as the Harrogate proposals, the project includes changes for Selby and Skipton’s stations.

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

“Improving the gateways to these towns will not only make them more attractive, but will also provide infrastructure for sustainable travel. We have looked at barriers to people accessing public transport, cycling and walking and devised schemes to address these.

“I hope people will have their say through the consultation and take advantage of the online events to learn more and to ask questions.”

Read more:

• James Street pedestrianisation back on the cards in major town centre scheme
• Row breaks out on first day of ‘Station Gateway’ consultation

Public events are being held online for residents to hear more about the plans and to ask questions about them. The Harrogate events take place on Wednesday, March 3 and Wednesday, March 10, both at 6pm.

The consultation runs until Wednesday, March 24, and anyone planning to take part is encouraged to engage with one of the online sessions beforehand. To find out more, click here.

Councillor Phil Ireland, Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet member for carbon reduction and sustainability, said:

“Through the Harrogate Congestion Study, it was clear the community wanted to see improvements to walking, cycling and public transport prioritised. The TCF project is the first step to delivering this and I’m pleased that the hard work and determination of council officers has paid off, and helped secure around £8million for the Harrogate bid.”

The authorities involved have promised that public feedback will be used to help shape the next stage of the plans.

They have already come under fire from business groups, including Harrogate BID, Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce and Independent Harrogate, who said they money could be better spent improving other areas such as Cambridge Street. However, the TCF can only be used for projects relating to transport.

Retailers on Albert Row, which runs along Station Parade, have also raised concerns about how the proposals will affect the area nearest their businesses, saying they could not fairly comment without more information.

What’s your view of the Station Gateway proposal? Email letters@thestrayferret.co.uk with your thoughts and we may include it on our letters page, Stray Views, published each Sunday.

A row appears to have broken out between businesses and the two local councils on the first day of the Harrogate Station Gateway consultation.

North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council secured £7.8 million for the project in ring-fenced funding.

Plans include pedestrianising James Street, building cycle lanes on Station Parade and improving cycling facilities in the town centre.

However, business owners on Prince Albert Row have questioned how their stretch on Station Parade comes into the proposals, which they say are vague.

Prince Albert Row is the name the businesses have given themselves along this short stretch of Station Parade.

Read more:

• Harrogate business groups want Station Gateway cash spent elsewhere
• James Street pedestrianisation back on the cards in major town centre scheme

A spokesman on behalf of Rigby & Peller, Helen James and Woods of Harrogate said:

“We are being asked for our views, but until we know what is actually being proposed for the entire length of Station Parade, including Prince Albert Row, we can’t make a reasoned judgement.

“The plans are incredibly vague. We’re not sure if the parking bays outside our businesses will stay or go, and we don’t know if this section of road will remain as two lanes or be reduced to a single carriageway.

“And to add insult to injury, the ‘Zone Two’ survey only covers Station Square and James Street. Those who designed this questionnaire need to go back to the drawing board and include this section.

“Our livelihoods are dependent on ease of access. Our businesses occupy Listed building in a Conservation Area, and we have regular need for deliveries, from flowers to furniture and heavy linens to kitchen appliances, fittings, televisions and hi-fis. Loading and unloading takes places throughout the day.

“Our customers also rely on the parking spaces outside our shops, and if they disappear, I’m afraid our customers may well go the same way.”

“A vibrant town centre is what we all want, one that is welcoming and accessible for all. And as more than 70 per cent of visitors to Harrogate arrive by car, we mustn’t turn our back on them.”

It comes after Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, Harrogate BID and Independent Harrogate questioned if the money could be better spent elsewhere.

The groups suggested East Parade and Cambridge Street as places they feel the money would be better spent.

However, Harrogate Borough Council has said the funding can only be spent improving the bus and train station area only and has to be focussed on transport-related activity.

Three Harrogate business groups have come together to ask for some of the money set aside for cycle lanes on Station Parade to be spent elsewhere.

North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council launched a four-week public consultation on the Harrogate Gateway Project today.

The councils set out plans last week to pedestrianise James Street, build cycle lanes on Station Parade and improve cycling facilities in the town centre.

Under the government’s Transforming Cities Fund, the county council secured £7.8 million in ring-fenced funding.

Now that the public consultation has started, the Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, Harrogate BID and Independent Harrogate have had their say.

Read more:

• James Street pedestrianisation back on the cards
• Campaign against Oatlands one-way scheme ramps up

The groups suggested East Parade and Cambridge Street as places they feel the money would be better spent.

However, Harrogate Borough Council has said the funding can only be spent improving the bus and train station area only and has to be focussed on transport-related activity.

Sandra Doherty from the chamber, Robert Ogden from Independent Harrogate and Sara Ferguson from Harrogate BID said:

“The challenge we are facing is how do we achieve a net-zero carbon town centre economy and simultaneously create a trading environment in which todays’ businesses can thrive?

“The Harrogate Gateway project gives us the opportunity to start the job of achieving this.

“While we welcome measures to reduce traffic congestion on Station Parade, we feel East Parade would be best placed for the new cycle lanes.

“We also believe that money would be better spent enhancing Cambridge Street, as this is very much the ‘gateway’ into Harrogate town centre from both the bus and railway stations.

“Also, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that previous studies have revealed that between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of visitors to Harrogate arrive here by car.

“Considering Harrogate’s role in Bicycling Touring Club, the Tour de France Grand Depart and the UCI World Cycling Championships, the town has somewhat lagged behind others.

“If this project is about making Harrogate accessible to more sustainable forms of transport, we particularly need to encourage visitors with electric and hybrid vehicles.”

Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

People really care about transport and traffic.

In my column last week I made the point that car design has been made less interesting; less angular, more rounded, better to adhere to pedestrian safety concerns.  In my mailbag this week I was taken to task for suggesting that cars only occasionally collide with pedestrians.  For the avoidance of doubt I want to make plain that any pedestrian death is of course one too many.

In fact, it has been pointed out to me that in the United Kingdom during 2019 there were 1743 pedestrian casualties with 1748 road deaths (including vehicle occupants).  I agree, this cannot be defined as “occasional.”  However, for perspective, given that the Department for Transport reports that we Brits took to the roads in our vehicles for a total of 272 billion miles in 2019, the number of pedestrian deaths is mercifully low.

Clearly pedestrians were not ‘front of mind’ to car drivers confronted with North Yorkshire County Council’s implementation of new traffic control measures at Harrogate’s Beech Grove this week.  Finding their route blocked with large planters, it seems that rather than turn around and navigate the roads, several drivers simply took off across the stray to avoid the obstacles.  The impromptu rally left several deep tire tracks in our cherished green space and, allegedly, saw other drivers find alternate routes through the private carparks of the apartment buildings on the road.  For some reason Dick Dastardly, Muttley and Penelope Pitstop spring to mind: Whacky Races indeed.

The Stray Defence Association (SDA) has mobilised, with their Chair, the redoubtable Judy D’Arcy Thompson to the fore.  It strikes me that what with Harrogate BID (BID), Independent Harrogate (IH), Harrogate and District Cycle Action (HDCA), Pinewoods Conservation Group (PCG) and the SDA, the political scene in Harrogate is beginning to resemble Ulster in the troubles.  Now, before you get exercised, of course I don’t actually think that, nor is it my intent to diminish the horrible importance of the traumatic lived experiences of those across the Irish Sea. Indeed, nor do I demean the activities of Harrogate’s various interest groups.  Quite the reverse.  In fact this column is a weekly and affectionate exercise in celebrating Harrogate’s vibrant local life and politics.

By the way, 2019 was also the year in which North Yorkshire County Council conducted a public survey into traffic congestion. 77% of us reported that we would use cycling and walking infrastructure, were it to be built.  This is but one piece of evidence being used by our fearless local leaders this week as they reached for the top shelf, grabbed an existing plan or two and blew off the dust.  Yes, plans to pedestrianise James Street and Station Parade are back on the agenda and lovely artists renderings of tree-lined, single-lane boulevards, segregated cycling lanes and promenades are circulating.  The almost £8 million Station Gateway Project is alive and well.

This will likely, and with some justification, enrage many in Harrogate’s business community, particularly those with commercial interests on once-proud James Street.  What I want to see and hear from our county and borough councillors is a cogent plan for economic renewal, for enterprise creation, for the bringing together of place, work and community.  In the absence of leadership, vision and common purpose, narrow interest groups with opposing views will continue to flourish.  Discourse will be lost to the cacophonous and shouty voices of entrenched opinion.

The world is undergoing profound changes, accelerated by Covid-19.  How we work will never be the same again, with company after company embracing a permanent work from home culture.  In-store retail shopping, already in decline before the pandemic, faces the end of days.  One of the most successful companies of our time is called Shopify; a Canadian tech giant that allows anyone to create a brilliant virtual retail presence for their venture (including payment and product distribution) for a monthly subscription of £25.  In the face of such profound change it just isn’t good enough to dust off old plans and comforting drawings.  We need discontinuity, creative thinking and innovation.  Nor is it good enough to find comfort in the way things were, in how we have always done things, in how we have built our businesses over the years.

Harrogate remains a great place to live, this notwithstanding that we hear this week that our council tax is going up significantly (£50 at Band D).  As we wait with bated breath for the Prime Minister’s Monday press conference, for what we hope will be a tentative lockdown easing roadmap, the £300 billion plus costs of Covid-19 and its economic impact begin to hove chillingly into view.  Council tax increases are just the beginning.

Conservatives both national and local have always felt that their point of difference is effective economic stewardship.  With the Bank of England predicting that unemployment could reach 10% by the middle of 2022, the cost of welfare benefits is set to sky-rocket.  Rishi Sunak is in an unenviable position; he’s paid Paul and now needs to rob Peter.  It seems inevitable that income tax rates will have to rise.  A one-off wealth tax has been suggested.  Increased inheritance tax is on the table, as are both a capital gains tax increase and a closure of tax efficient enterprise investment schemes.  If implemented with a dead hand, if we are ever to pay off our Covid-19 bill, these measures could choke off any prospect of the economic recovery the country desperately needs.

Local traffic and transport issues are important but they are a second order problem.  We are in danger of squabbling over the deckchairs while the Titanic sinks.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

Read More: 

• Cars drive over the Stray to get avoid Harrogate road closure
• Cars could make way for cyclists on another Harrogate road

Do you have a view on this column or is there a political issue you’d like Paul to write about? Get in touch on paul@thestrayferret.co.uk

A four-week consultation will launch next week on redeveloping Station Parade in Harrogate.

North Yorkshire County Council secured £7.8m in funding from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund last year to create a “gateway” to connect the bus and railway stations with the town centre.

A media briefing to discuss the proposals and forthcoming consultation will be held online tomorrow.

The money awarded in March has to be spent within three years and NYCC’s executive member for highways Cllr Don Mackenzie told the Stray Ferret that building work could begin on the scheme before the end of this year.

The public will be asked to contribute ideas for the project, which aims to promote sustainable transport.

Cllr Mackenzie said one idea could involve building cycle lanes on Station Parade but he added there would be no ban on cars.

Plans for a ‘station gateway’ have been in the works for several years and in 2016 Harrogate Borough Council published an artist’s impression of how it might look:

Read more:

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• Conservative councillor speaks out against James Street pedestrianisation

The plan fits into a wider strategy for Harrogate drawn up by the borough council in its 2016 Town Centre Strategy and Masterplan.

It said:

“Harrogate’s railway station and adjoining facilities, including the town centre’s bus station, have long been identified as an area for improvement. The current buildings and infrastructure detract from the overall quality of the town centre environment and provide a poor gateway for visitors.”