Stray Views Archives - Page 179 of 188

Stray Views: ‘Something must be done’ about Harrogate e-scooters

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.

Can anything be done to curb the increasing use of our pavements by cyclists and now e-scooters?

“The other morning I was nearly knocked over near the Odeon by a youth riding an electric scooter at some speed on the pavement and last night a cyclist brushed past me from behind on the pavement in North Park Road.

I am a fairly alert 72 year-old but I fear that one of our older residents or those harder of hearing will be injured or worse if something is not done. You just don’t hear them coming.

Stephen Oliver, Harrogate

‘Scruffy’ displays in Harrogate

Come on, Harrogate, this is not good enough.

One-hundred yards from the town centre and otherwise well-kept flower displays. This is not re-wilding – it is scruffy.

Picture and letter by Chris Graville, 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: All Harrogate district schools should have 20mph speed limits

I read your article “Highways boss defends North Yorkshire speed limit review” with interest, especially after the recent incident where children on their way to school in Rossett were hit by a car mounting the pavement.

Rather than the onus being on residents to prove that their school needs to be in a 20mph zone, surely the answer is to have a blanket policy where all schools have a mandatory proposed 20mph zone to be enforced in time for the September term, with an appeals process for those who are against it. That way the burden is on the (presumably) commercial interested parties to prove why there shouldn’t be one, rather than on anxious parents and children to prove why there should.

The claim that not many children are knocked down on their way to school is erroneous – according to the Department of Transports own figures 2,456 children were either knocked down or killed on their way to/from school last year alone.

Come on Councillor Duncan, surely we should put children’s safety first? Even one death in North Yorkshire would be one too many.

Colin Mannion, Boroughbridge

Water companies should improve productivity

There has been a lot of noise about the problems that water companies are having and I suspect that there are a combination of reasons why they are losing money.

One of them may be the productivity of their teams in the field.

Over the last few weeks one of our neighbours has had a lot of work done to sort out problems with their drains. Virtually every day one or two Yorkshire Water vans appear and the staff sit in the vans for anything up to an hour at a time eating, drinking, reading newspapers and certainly not working.

Clearly leakage is a problem nationally but it is not just underground.

Nigel Law, Harrogate

Stray Views: Stranded in Leeds thanks to shambolic trains

For my 72nd birthday, my son purchased tickets for us to attend a T20 game at Headingley on June 22.

Having consulted the timetable we found we had two options for our homeward journey to Knaresborough: the 21.34 train from Burley Park to Knaresborough or the 22.44 train from Burley Park to Harrogate.

For some strange reason only known to Northern, the 22.44 service terminates at Harrogate. Why?

To resolve this issue we decided for our outward journey we would drive to Hornbeam Park Station, park up and then get the train to Burley Park Station.

During the Yorkshire Vikings innings (they batted second), luckily my son checked on his phone and found that both of the trains we could have got home had been cancelled.

Stranded in Leeds. Car at Hornbeam Station. Possible £40/£50 taxi back to Hornbeam.

A solution was an earlier train home that hadn’t been cancelled at 20.34, which would mean missing the last hour of the game. The problem was the train departed in 10 minutes.

At 72 years of age, running to catch a train is not much fun but we made it.

How many people attending this event got stranded in Leeds by Northern Rail? I can see why they have had their franchise taken over by the government.

Did any other readers get caught out by this pathetic excuse of a train company?

They completely ruined our day out and we missed a very exciting end to the game.

Robbie Payne, Knaresborough

Boy racers at Conyngham Hall

Malcolm Wood’s letter on the A59 Badger Hill race track caught my attention. It isn’t the only race track which is a noise nuisance.

There is a big problem in Conyngham Hall car park in Knaresborough. Each evening it becomes a mecca for anyone with a souped-up engine/exhaust. They start at one end of the car park, rev up, backfire, then race to the other end where handbrake circles, skidding and revving are performed.

This happens well up to and sometimes beyond 11pm. It’s not a recent thing, it’s been happening for at least three years, together with drug usage, drinking parties and fire lighting. The police have been informed and a crime number issued, but do we see any action from them or the council — what do you think?

Jean Butterfield, Knaresborough

Bond End also a race track

I am in absolute agreement with Malcolm Wood’s letter of June 16 about speeding in Knaresborough at Badger Hill. It is a problem on Bond End too.

Noisy, modified cars and motorbikes use Bond End as a slingshot before breaking the speed limit on the dual carriageway of Harrogate Road, from Mother Shipton’s towards the golf club. This has been ongoing since spring.

The beginning of this area has a lot of pedestrians. Alas, a police presence, acting as enforcement and deterrence, is absent.

Dr. David Oldman, Knaresborough

And so is York Place…

I can concur with Malcolm Woods regarding boy racers. I live on Iles Lane, I walk my dogs every night and I can say that boy racers race in town up York Place through the High Street nearly every night between 9.30pm and 10.30pm. No police visible

Maggie Boyd , Knaresborough

Full marks for promptness to local politician

I have no political allegiance or affiliation, but when I raised an issue concerning his ward, Matt Walker responded almost immediately. This was even though his contact page on the council website said he was on holiday at the time. Full marks, and good luck, sir!

Colin Harrison, Knaresborough

Station Gateway: we expect better from councillors

A couple of issues in particular discussed by councillors at the area constituency committee meeting on June 8 should be raised.

1 THE PETITION

A Conservative member attending this meeting queried the petition’s veracity, saying its signatories included people from as far away as South Africa. According to people who are more computer literate than I am, it is reportedly an anomaly where the IP address of people’s computers shows up on the petition rather than their postal address. So I have been told, it occurs when a virtual private network is used to provide additional security and privacy rather than that afforded by the normal internet connection.

For example, two people I know who certainly live in Harrogate had their addresses displayed on the petition as Sunderland. It therefore seems to confirm that the councillor who announced in a sarcastic manner at the North Yorkshire Council executive meeting that he had rigorously checked the petition and that it proved nothing as at least 20% of the signatories lived outside the Harrogate area was quite wrong.

Surely there must be some way in which these misleading discrepancies, fabrications and exaggerations can be taken into account as they were extremely misleading. I find it hard to comprehend the technology wizards at the council have not come across this anomaly before.

2 INTERPRETATION OF THE PETITION

Another Conservative member attending the meeting pointed out even 500 local signatures, the threshold needed to have the petition debated by the committee, were not representative of all views from local residents. Just over two years ago quite extensive coverage was given in the local media of the survey results following public consultation on the gateway project including the pedestrianisation of James Street.

A report commissioned by North Yorkshire County Council claimed the gateway project still had more supporters than detractors. I understand the overall population of Harrogate at the time was in the region of 75,000 residents, from which there were some 1,101 respondents to the online survey. This equates approximately to 1.5% of Harrogate town’s total population – some 45% of the 1,101 participants voted in favour of this proposal or in real terms somewhere in the region of 0.75% of Harrogate’s population.

So, if you adopt this councillor’s theory, it is less representative of all the views from local residents even though at the time Cllr Phil Ireland from the then Harrogate Borough Council claimed “we have EVERYBODY’S feedback and ideas to feed into the next phase of detailed design work”. And yet, they dare to trash the recent petition which reached over 2,000 signatures and continues to increase.

We do not expect this standard of behaviour form councillors who were elected to represent us the residents of Harrogate and a public apology on both issues would be appropriate.

The simple fact that the signatories to the petition may not be representative of all views from local residents rests firmly in the lap of the council. It is quite disturbing to find out even now how many local residents and businesses still have not heard of or do not know what the station gateway involves. Whilst I appreciate it will always be a problem to ensure everyone is aware, I believe the council and the highways team in particular has a history of poor consultation, ignoring the democratic process; not listening and dismissive of public comment, and hiding behind a meaningless excess of words in press releases. If only they had involved us much earlier in the democratic process more of us would have shared in ownership of a gateway project.

Barry Adams, Harrogate

Stray Views: Drivers use Badger Hill as ‘speed track’

I live on Badger Hill and have contacted the council about this road. It is now a speed track by the idiot drivers among us.

They use the bridge like a sling shot and accelerate to go up the hill.

The road markings have disappeared, which enable many to cut the corner, which makes our 180 turn to enter Badger Hill scary.

Of course drivers know there is no chance of being caught as the police seem non-existent.

Malcolm Wood, Knaresborough

Bypass project rejected due to ‘misinformation’

The bypass project was rejected by the public as it was called the Nidd Gorge Project and photos of Nidd Gorge were shown in the local newspaper and political documents.

The road was not planned to be built in the gorge but this misinformation influenced the vote.

With this rejection and no alternative route being planned we now have a build up of traffic through Knaresborough and Scotton. What route can the new residents of Killinghall, etc. take to the A1(M) and York?

I also cannot see how blocking off a road assists congestion or helps to get traffic from the A1(M) to Skipton and vice versa.

We now prefer to shop in Northallerton where new roads have been opened recently, by the same councillor who is managing the closure of streets in Harrogate.

Pam Watson, Harrogate

Stray Views: Yorkshire Water ‘sorry they got caught’

How insulting it is that Yorkshire Water blame a shift in “expectations” for their failure to maintain clean and healthy water?

What they meant to say was, “the public have finally cottoned on to the fact that most water companies in the UK are doing an inadequate job of protecting this precious resource and the natural biodiversity that makes the British countryside so very special”.

It sounds like the cliche: you’re not really sorry. You’re just sorry you got caught.

Mark Fuller, Harrogate

Harrogate is ‘dying slowly’

Why are we not talking about the closure of shopping businesses and the lack of keeping retail businesses and putting in place a Wilkinsons or a Home Bargains. Places people want to shop at.

Also the lack of entertainment, there’s no bowling or crazy golf. There is nothing fun to do except for drinking and eating. There’s a cafe opening every week, a bar opening all the time but no real shopping opportunities. Empty retail shops are either going to be a bar or flats.

The council don’t want to do anything, they are just wanting money and that’s it. It’s okay saying go to Leeds, but it doesn’t help people when the trains are always on strike and the traffic is absolutely dreadful. This town is dying slowly.

Chris Firth, Harrogate

Different parties, different policies

Andrew Jones likes to say it’s ‘Yah boo politics’ when someone points out the massive problems created by his party’s policy.

Has Andrew heard that political parties have different policies? That is why there are different parties.

The Conservatives promote privatisation: Margaret Thatcher pushed for the privatisation of water, so England and Wales became the only countries in the world to have fully privatised water and sewage systems.

Tories believe that it’s OK for profits to be made from a basic service like water (or health, or energy, or transport, or education ). Greens don’t.

Tories also believe in removing ‘the red tape’ and ‘the green crap’ (removing regulation and sustainability considerations).

Well, now we are seeing the consequences of 13 years of Tory government.

Trumpeting that he is saving the Nidd is pure hypocrisy, when Mr Jones’s voting record supports privatisation and its dire consequences: including the destruction of nature and theft from the public purse.

He knows perfectly well that Greens would never have let the rivers get into this state in the first place, and we work full-time at all levels to right the wrongs created by his party’s short-sighted policies.

Shan Oakes, former Green Party European parliamentary and local candidate. Currently serving on Knaresborough Town and Scriven Parish Councils

Stray Views: Concern over potential accidents on Boroughbridge Road

As a long-term resident of the Boroughbridge Road area I am ‘pre-warning’ of a potential major accident in the stretch between Stockwell Road junction and Bar Lane Roundabout.

Forgive my ‘remembrance’ but the last time I consulted the Highway Code it stated that “bar special circumstances”, it is illegal to park within 10m of a junction.

There is a constant presence of vans, cars, trucks and 4WD monsters parked on Boroughbridge Road opposite to Somerley Lane, Norwood Court, Norwood Close and even Chain Lane.

Which means that traffic emerging from these roads has to take account of the fact that heavy traffic headed towards Boroughbridge has to divert to lane two to avoid the illegally parked traffic and the traffic heading Knaresborough bound has to both award the turning traffic and the oncoming traffic.

As a vast amount of this traffic is HGV and white vans, there will be a major disaster.

In any event parking on the pavement is also illegal. A good case for lots of yellow lines.

Maurice Johnson, Knaresborough

Motorbikes on the Greenway

Just a quick note to inform that there are now regular instances of motorbikes being ridden on these paths. We back onto the paths at the top end of Bilton Lane and almost daily hear and partially observe the mask-wearing so-and-so’s disregarding other users. Usually in small groups, particularly in the evening.

Would be useful to get this on the police radar before any person or pet are injured.

Richard Chester, Harrogate

Stray Views: Harrogate’s Victoria Avenue should be resurfaced entirely

Victoria Avenue needs the whole road resurfacing not just the potholes. There are many other roads that are in dire need of resurfacing but will miss out on necessary repairs.

Is there an agenda by Highways North Yorkshire to discourage motorists and cyclists from visiting Harrogate?

Maybe we can encourage Chinese investors to Harrogate, they have built many excellent roads all around the world.

Simon Kirby, Harrogate

Re-wilding should be more than ‘not bothering’

Re-wilding should not just be not bothering.

Much of the re-wilding on the edges of the Stray, with splashes of colour from such as buttercups, also manage to look good and purposeful.

The verges on Beech Grove with their proliferation of dandelions and docks, do not.

Chris Graville, Harrogate

Stray Views: Time for councillors to back Harrogate Station Gateway

As a former Harrogate town centre shop owner for 30 years, I was hugely disappointed to read Cllr Mike Schofield says he will not vote for Station Gateway because it ‘may’ be bad for business. In my view he couldn’t be more wrong. He and any councillors who are considering voting to dump this £11m investment in the town centre on similar flimsy grounds would be doing the town the very greatest disservice.

Cllr Schofield is quoted as saying Station Gateway ‘may potentially deal businesses another blow’ on top of covid and the cost of living crisis. He gives no evidence to back his claim.

Along with many others in Harrogate I am confident it will in fact benefit business. It’s true that many local businesses are noisily opposing it. It was the same in the 1980s when Cambridge, Oxford and Beulah streets were pedestrianised. A chorus of local business owners said it would be a disaster. It wasn’t. As the owner of a sports shop in Beulah Street I supported the changes. I thought they would be good for my business and they were. Our business increased appreciably because footfall increased. It also created a considerably more pleasant environment for our staff to work in – quieter and cleaner.

If the councillors reject Gateway they won’t lose ‘just’ the £10.9m for this scheme, they jeopardise much, much more in future funding. North Yorkshire has a lengthening and shocking record of failing to deliver on active travel in Harrogate – Otley Road, Beech Grove, Victoria Avenue, A59 at Knaresborough, Oatlands Drive, the Wetherby Road/Slingsby Walk crossing, declining bus services, no valuable cycle infrastructure since the Showground Greenway in 2014.

Why should the government offer more funding to an authority with such a dismal track record of failure to deliver? The Gateway is the last chance to restore credibility. But it seems some councillors are ready to dump it because they hear some noisy local business people say it ‘might be bad for business’. I’ll repeat – what’s the evidence?

In fact the evidence, time and again, is that making streets people friendly rather than car friendly is good for business. The best known example is probably Waltham Forest. In 2015 there was huge opposition to their mini Holland scheme and the pedestrianisation of the main shopping street, Orford Road. Many businesses and residents said it would be the death of Walthamstow, and carried a coffin along the street in protest. In fact it has been a terrific success and recent polls show that over 98% of local people now support it.

There are many other examples of hostility to proposals to reduce road space and restrict traffic in town centres where the opposition disappeared once the changes had been introduced because people find they actually like them.

Cllr Schofield says there are better alternative designs which should have been considered. The time to put forward those designs was during the consultation. The situation now is the design that’s on the table – which was updated and improved during the consultation process – or nothing.

On Friday, councillors have an extremely rare opportunity to invest £11m to make much of the town centre fit for the 21st century. It’s most unlikely to come again any time soon. Let’s hope they have the good sense and courage to take it.

Malcom Margolis, Harrogate

Crimple Valley homes near ‘extremely dangerous road’

I have lived here for nearly sixty years and the Crimple Valley was once owned by The Earl of Harewood and before him King George 111 and purchased by Harrogate Borough Council as a buffer between Harrogate and the village of Pannal.

The Crimple Valley has always been a beautiful wildlife area.

Anyone brave or foolhardy enough to try to cross the A61 Leeds Road are taking their life in their hands. It is an extremely dangerous road and houses should definitely not be built there.

Over the years planning permission was refused for the existing building which was built with the intention of turning it into a house. Planning permission was refused. Planning permission for this development has been refused before by Harrogate Borough Council so the developers are now trying their luck with North Yorkshire Council and all objectors hope they do not succeed.

Anne Smith, Pannal

Stray Views: Crimple Valley homes plan ‘unbelievable’

It is absolutely unbelievable that anyone can possibly see any reason to build houses on that site. We need a green space between Harrogate and Pannal.

The access onto that busy steep hill would be incredibly dangerous, so do no building there at all.

Alison Roscoe, Burn Bridge

Time for a ‘rethink’ on Harrogate’s roads

It has been written and discussed recently that the council has been unable to deliver on active travel projects in Harrogate. This is largely true, apart from the Otley Road cycle path, but we might be best to leave that there.

There have been consultations and bids for various projects that might improve active travel in the town, but very few have come to fruition. Now that North Yorkshire Council are in charge, maybe it’s time for a short to mid-term rethink.

I have often believed many cycle schemes are veiled road improvements that are being paid for by active travel schemes. But things have come to a point whereby the roads are now becoming unsafe to cycle on due to the state of the road, not because of the vehicles.

Many roads around Harrogate have deep holes in them that a bit of surface dressing will not fix. The stones and small rocks that are coming out of the pot holes litter the road and the gutter is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate safely.

The road surface is dangerously pitted and uneven making it doubly dangerous for a cyclist to traverse. These road hazards are causing cyclists to swerve or take a different line on the road and this adds further dangers to all concerned. If you need a good example, look at Pannal Ash Road. This is a road with schools on it, where we expect our children to ride their bikes.

I don’t think there will be many arguments with these statements. What I would like to see in the short to mid term is for the council to make a concerted effort to return our roads to a state whereby they don’t cause risk or damage just by using them. Resurface badly damaged roads properly (not just surface dressing), sweep the gutters to remove the debris, and at least allow all road users to be able to travel safely. Active travel schemes are nice to have, but let’s not forget about what have already.

Scott Mordue, Harrogate

Stray Views: Knaresborough electric vehicle charging bays ‘an own goal’

Following the furore concerning the installation of 10 electric vehicle charging bays alongside the Chapel Street car park, on turning in to the street yesterday, I was astounded to see a large tour bus parked across eight out the ten bays.

Later, a different tour bus was parked there also. This appears to be yet another own goal by the council, not only do these bays not conform to short stay provision, it appears that tour buses continue to use the site for disgorging their punters into the town.

Nick Bentley, Staveley

Station Gateway proposals ‘highly questionable’

North Yorkshire Councillor Keane Duncan is a welcome breath of fresh air in challenging the supine response of Harrogate Borough Council to the evangelical cycle-lobby which has resulted in many hundreds of thousands pounds being spent on whimsical cycle lanes which the vast majority of Harrogate residents, if properly consulted, would have preferred to be spent on eliminating the pot holes which plague our streets.

There is absolutely no doubt that the public piazza outside the Victoria Centre is tired and needs updating. But the rest of the £11 million plans are highly questionable.

Bus and train visitors would in future have to navigate a two-way cycle lane on what is currently a one direction traffic flow.

The latest London experience statistics show that far less than 50% of cyclists stop at pedestrian lights. At present there are four sets of traffic lights in a 300 metre stretch on Station Parade to help pedestrian visitors to cross the road. It works extremely well. When was the last injury recorded?

Will the plans improve life for cyclists wanting to go to the train station? Not really. They can do that already via the dedicated cycle lanes on East Parade.

Councillor Duncan has promised that “ traffic flows will be revisited and re- assessed”.It is wonderful to me to hear that ,at last, someone on the new NY council seems to be giving balanced consideration to the welfare of residents of Harrogate.

But will the NY council have the guts to turn down the free £ 11m government grant or the wit to redefine the plans to recognise that the interests of many potentially adversely affected residential council tax-payers should also be given due consideration? I have my fingers – crossed.

Tim Emmott, Harrogate

‘Scruffy’ displays in Harrogate

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Water companies should improve productivity

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Boy racers at Conyngham Hall

Bond End also a race track

And so is York Place…

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Full marks for promptness to local politician

Station Gateway: we expect better from councillors

Bypass project rejected due to ‘misinformation’

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Harrogate is ‘dying slowly’

Different parties, different policies

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Motorbikes on the Greenway

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Re-wilding should be more than ‘not bothering’

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Crimple Valley homes near ‘extremely dangerous road’

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Time for a ‘rethink’ on Harrogate’s roads

Station Gateway proposals ‘highly questionable’

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