Stray Views Archives - Page 220 of 224

Stray Views: Harrogate’s John Shackleton deserves an honour

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.

John Shackleton deserves an honour

I’ve just watched John Shackleton’s interview on BBC feature stories. I know him from St. Robert’s Church in Harrogate, he’s a dear friend and a great supporter of the youth.

I think what he’s done over these years is remarkable and extraordinary. He has served not only our local community but also our European neighbours especially those in need.

John is an amazing person who has touched and changed so many lives and it’s time he is recognised for his bravery, selflessness, generosity and service. I would like to make an appeal to nominate him for the Queen’s honours.

I tried to apply online but I wasn’t very successful. He deserves the gratitude not just from us but from the world. If we are all a little bit like John, the world would be a much better place to live.

Joy O’Brien, Harrogate

Objections to proposed mosque

We live very close to the proposed development and have canvassed our neighbours, none of whom have received one piece of paper through our letterboxes opposing this development. I should also point out there has not been one piece of publicity supporting this development.

No one who lives near this development supports it, but the reasons for this are not based on race or religion. This development is surrounded by residential properties and a primary school on three sides then joined to a retail premises on the fourth, all of which have to cope with horrendous traffic and pollution as it is.

Traffic from two hotels, two pubs, a 24 hour gym, a primary school, the Alms houses and a church already pass our doors at all hours of the day and night.

Does anyone really think adding to this with a community building that opens 24 hours, catering for up to 200 people a day together with the attendant traffic will in some way improve the quality of life and air pollution and congestion in this small area of Harrogate?

I also note that of those who support this plan, not one of them lives in the area so would not be affected by it.

Brian Preston, Harrogate

Influencer post has more channels

Commenting on your council influencer story. Facebook is not the influencer’s primary channel. A two-minute tally of Instagram shows 300 likes for her Harrogate post series (eight posts) and 5,000 video views across two Harrogate/ North Yorks videos.

I’m not suggesting that is good value (at 7p per like or view on insta) or that the council’s mico-influencer strategy is correct, but I normally find the Stray Ferret a lot more accurate and feel that’s really important when reporting on public spending.

If we slate every penny the council spends, when they really misspend the public’s ears will be closed to it and we only really have the Stray Ferret to shine a light on this matters.

Kate Garrett, 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: Doubts remain about Harrogate Station Gateway

Do the councillors voting on the Station Gateway know what’s best for Harrogate?

As we are all aware there has been quite a bit of publicity locally on the Harrogate Station Gateway project — mostly negative but some positive.

I object to the proposals as they stand and have written individually to each councillor sitting on the executive committee of North Yorkshire County Council on this basis.
The Station Gateway will not improve the visual appeal or the environment of the town centre. It is purely a highway engineer’s solution to the problem and one which is focussed on cycling in an attempt to reduce car usage. It will be a disaster for the town. What a legacy to leave us!

It will be interesting to see how many of them out of courtesy respond prior to the meeting.

So far I have had a response from Cllr Carl Les, chair of the committee and Cllr Don Mackenzie, although at this stage both are non-committal.

Looking at the mailing list for the executive, it is interesting to note that out of the 10 members sitting only two are residents of Harrogate. The remainder are scattered to all corners of North Yorkshire but will be making a critical decision on the future of Harrogate. It makes you question how many of those councillors know Harrogate and how well and how many of them have actually visited the town.

I’m not against cycling even though the cycling lobby appear to get the most publicity, but just the way it has been pushed in Harrogate because NYCC have applied for available funding without any prior thought on how they are going to implement schemes. As I have said many times over the last few years, “putting the cart before the horse”. I would respect them much more if they admitted they have got it wrong.

Much more could be achieved in Harrogate and make it a great town once again otherwise we will be left with a mess for the next fifty years.

Barry Adams, Harrogate

Station Gateway will turn shoppers away

Which idiot came up with the Station Gateway proposal – are they trying to kill all the shops in Harrogate?

Many years ago when they first brought in pay parking (20p per hour ), people were that angry everyone went to Clifton Moor, which had easy parking and was free. It took years to get them back.

Maybe the proposers live in Wetherby or Skipton Road and are jealous of the relatively free-flowing of traffic through town.

I can just see my 80-year-old mother-in-law going shopping with all those bags on her bike.

I don’t live in Harrogate anymore but we’re looking to return and relocate our shop there (not if this happens). Probably Northallerton for us now then.

John Dalton, Hornsea

Has Wallace Sampson visited the rest of North Yorkshire?

Further to your article on the economic power of the Harrogate area, one does wonder if Wallace Sampson, the chief executive of Harrogate Borough Council, has ever visited the North Yorkshire Council area and appreciated the economic contribution of Scarborough, Skipton or Northallerton.

He seems to be besotted by Harrogate town and its dying spa importance, and fail to realise how the spa town in the district was really supported by Ripon, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Masham and Pateley Bridge.

David Rhodes, Harrogate

Stray Views: Harrogate Tesco would be ‘horrendous’ for nearby residents

New Tesco would be ‘horrendous’ for nearby residents

We believe that it is not an appropriate or safe location for the supermarket.

Already Skipton Road is extremely busy with traffic and New Park roundabout is quite unsafe at times, due to the high volumes of traffic. The entrance to Tesco would require a roundabout to gain entrance to the store, therefore there would be two roundabouts extremely close together. We would argue that this is dangerous because there is also an entrance to Oak Beck trading estate to contend with (Aldi and B&Q). How would this be safe?

We believe that the level of traffic would increase dramatically on the roads if Tesco is built, adding to pollution in the area.

On the planned site there is an abundance of wildlife; bats, badgers, newts, hedgehogs and owls to name a few. A lot of trees would need to be cut down for this development, which would be a disaster for Harrogate with its increasing population. Green space and wildlife should be cherished.

Without our knowledge Tesco held a consultation process with the public and 70% were in favour. Why were the local residents (especially on Electric Avenue) not directly consulted and encouraged to take part? In Tesco’s application they claim that they notified local businesses in the area and local residents by distributing leaflets. We received nothing!

The majority of residents I have chatted to on Electric Avenue strongly object to Tesco and the delivery road located directly behind our properties. This would be horrendous for us, it would bring noise and air pollution to our area and disturb our peace.

Jennifer Dance, Electric Avenue, Harrogate

Proud to be Harrogate, not London

I note that a new fitness studio wants it to bring ‘a London feel’ to Harrogate and recall that the restaurants associated with The Everyman Cinema was also intended to be ‘London-centric’, whatever that means.

Can someone enlighten me regarding this strange desire to be like London when Harrogate, and indeed Yorkshire as a whole, has so much distinctive to offer? It seems to me that this desire to be like London is a strange business proposition. Of course I wish all the local businesses concerned well, despite my feelings about their PR.

Tim Hurren, Harrogate

Speed limits should be reduced

I read your article about North Yorkshire County Council refusing a blanket introduction of a 20mph speed limit in built-up areas.

The council’s executive member for access, Cllr Don Mackenzie, said the county’s roads were becoming safer and safer, and 20mph zones should only be created on a case-by-case basis.

I have tried for years to get the speed limits reduced. I believe Councillor Mackenzie does not listen to anyone — where does he get his information from on safer roads? Cars around Harrogate are now more powerful and speeding is paramount throughout the town and on country roads. When is someone going to challenge this man and when will he listen?

Mike Fisher, Cornwall Road, Harrogate

Stray Views: Beech Grove LTN ‘a brilliant update’ to Harrogate

Beech Grove a ‘brilliant update’ to the area

The low traffic area on Beech Grove has been a brilliant update to the area. I can walk and cycle down the road safely with my children aged 3,5,8 without having to resort to riding on the pavement.

Walking into town is more pleasant, the air is cleaner and sound pollution is less on that route. It is basically the only concession to active travel in the Harrogate central area – but at least it gives a vision of what a difference changes can make.

Imran Shaikh, Harrogate

Visions to improve Harrogate

I read the article the other day by Malcolm Neesam about the numerous planning travesties, and with money being no object approach to how things could be improved in mainly the town centre, and something occurred to me.

Though we largely have less and less power over planning travesties any more, and council tax being a finite resource that every council tax payer has something to say about. There is a realm whereas I think it would be possible to make his dream, as well as numerous others a reality. The example that I would like to give is with the Copthall Tower.

Indeed, let’s demolish it, along with the railway station, and give the town back a portal to be proud of. Of course, in reality, or at least in our lifetime, this wouldn’t happen, both because it’s just too good an idea, and it cost a shedload of money.

But in the augmented reality computer generated world, this would be able to be made possible. Now this is just one example, and the possibilities are near enough endless, you could even have a comedic augmented town centre, whereas most of the shops are boarded up save for the odd fried chicken takeaway and massage parlour.

So this is the idea, to set up a computer generated forum of augmented reality, whereas the travesties of local planning are replaced by its members wildest, most beautiful money no object creations, or not for that matter.

Miles Dixon, Harrogate

Beech Grove and other traffic schemes ‘never have desired effect’

Councillor Don Mackenzie’s support for highways department in this [Beech Grove], and in fact it seems everything they propose, never seems to bring the desired effect.

The M&S traffic scheme is perhaps the worst example of incompetence by his department and to say they are working to reduce traffic congestion needs to be demonstrated by results of which there are none.

They have been advised on how to improve matters but don’t react. Driving round town shows anyone what needs doing but Zilch’.

Jon Holder, Harrogate

My own Beech Grove survey

The Stray Ferret has reported that I counted how many people cycled on Beech Grove in an hour when I conducted my survey in September, and that my figures were (several times) higher than the averages quoted by the County Council.

In case any readers wonder whether I exaggerated the numbers I want to make it clear that I was accompanied throughout by your reporter, Thomas Barrett, who interviewed me and also made a mark in his notebook each time someone cycled by. We both counted 21 cyclists over the course of the hour. Nor, by the way, did I include my own bike.

Malcolm Margolis BEM, Harrogate

Stray Views: Beech Grove LTN is ‘expensive folly’

Low Traffic Neighbourhood is expensive folly

As someone who lives adjacent to the Beech Grove LTN, I must say I have rarely seen such expensive folly. The council seem intent on installing ever more restrictive road barriers simply to, as effectively as possible, funnel more and more traffic onto Lancaster and Queens Road.

All of this to give around 60 cyclists a day the most cossetted and relaxing trip into town. Seemingly, by the council’s own admission, there is no evidence that cycling traffic will meaningfully replace motorists on local roads. Especially so, in the depths of winter, as they face icy cold, driven rain.

As a leisure cyclist I am inherently supportive, like most people I suspect, of reducing the use of cars where it makes sense to do so. As far as I can see though this is not that. This appears to be virtue signalling with no meaningful impact on future car use and with material detriment for residents.

The principal achievement of the LTN, as far as I can see, is to make it more hazardous for the large numbers of children walking to and from Western Primary and Harrogate Grammar School each day. They are put at risk as they try to cross tentatively between often inappropriately fast-moving cars, rat running from south of town to Otley or Leeds Road.

If we want to get people out of cars and using alternate forms of transport, we need to look more closely at who those car drivers are, why they are driving and how we make it easier for them to do otherwise. Shoehorning additional, random, road furniture onto small roads to deliver ineffective trophy projects is not the answer.

I would simply ask the council to stop, stand back, think and reflect, and then look for genuinely considered ways of improving all forms of transport around Harrogate. Until that happens all they are doing is robbing Peter to pay Paul. As a concerned parent I would be more than happy to contribute to the thinking on the best way forward into 2022.

Carl Howard, Queens Road

Harrogate apply for city status?

Instead of complaining about the previous Housing Minister’s decision, why don’t the Harrogate councillors get a grip and apply for city status in view of the massive expansion of our “town”?

John Holder, Harrogate

Stray Views: Valley Gardens was the perfect place for Xmas market

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

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

Stray Views: Station Gateway will benefit far more people than cyclists

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

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

I wish to add weight to the growing number of Harrogate residents who oppose the proposed Station Gateway. The project is ill-conceived and in my opinion [and the opinion of everyone in my neighbourhood], it needs to be scrapped.

Roger Cooke, Harrogate

Stray Views: Let’s get behind the Station Gateway

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

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

Stray Views: Scrap the Station Gateway in its current form

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

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

Stray Views: Station Gateway ‘a waste of money’

Traffic concern over Beech Grove

Since the closure of through traffic along Beech Grove, the daily count of (mainly) cars using Victoria Road has increased by over 300%. The Project Engineer attributes most of this increase to cars driving southbound from A61 Ripon Road to A61 Leeds Road using Victoria Road as a cut-through thus avoiding the Cheltenham /Station Parade congestion.

There is now an experimental scheme, about to be installed, which will stop movements from Victoria Road to Otley Road. Hence the extra 300% of cars using Victoria Road will be pushed back on to Cold Bath Road and Cheltenham Parade which are already the subject of complaints about increased traffic.

Richard Wright, Harrogate

Station Gateway “a waste of money”

Having attended the consultation meeting on October 29, I left feeling that the general consensus of attendees was that the project was a gross waste of public money irrespective of the source of that money.

When asked the source and integrity of the data being used to support the scheme the project team spokesperson appeared more coy mentioning ‘social media’ and local surveys without being specific, although the council leader’s strong support of cycling was mentioned by an attendee. The council leader sees a vote of just over a thousand people (mainly cyclists) as being a significant majority vote in support of the planned cycle lane’s scheme incorporated in the Gateway project. The town’s population of over seventy five thousand seemingly being overlooked i.e. Less than 2% appear to support the introduction of many of the proposed changes.

It was indicated that forty thousand survey letters would be sent out shortly but the area of coverage was unknown.

Bearing in mind that the consultation was indicated to be the final opportunity for public comments to be made this seems a little late in the planning process.

In essence as a percentage of the total populace it seemed to highlight how few people were fully aware of the proposed project details or cost of it.

Comments expressed, as a generalisation, was the council do what they want anyway, appearing to endorse seeing the town as their ‘fiefdom’ without cognisance of the ‘silent majority’ Ie. those who are just too weary of the local politics and money wasting schemes over several years to further engage.

John Marsden, Harrogate

Spofforth homes would be a “disaster”

The site of Yorkshire Housing Ltd’s new development is on a green field site. The field is in a conservation area, and to quote the local news website, The Stray Ferret, “more than 300 people and organisations, including Natural England, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, have raised concerns about the scheme”.

As well as being in a beautiful setting (where my son and his family live), the roads and infrastructure are not suitable for the increased amount of traffic, not to mention the small bridge that spans the Crimple Beck, which is very narrow and cannot possibly take the strain of the extra HGVs vehicles that the construction would necessitate.

There does not appear to be any proper access/exit roads to the site? The increase of 72 cars plus, would turn this into an ecological disaster and a dystopian nightmare for the residents of the village.

Denis Ffoulkes Standing, Spofforth

John Shackleton deserves an honour

Objections to proposed mosque

Read more:

Influencer post has more channels

Do the councillors voting on the Station Gateway know what’s best for Harrogate?

Station Gateway will turn shoppers away

Read more:

Has Wallace Sampson visited the rest of North Yorkshire?

New Tesco would be ‘horrendous’ for nearby residents

Proud to be Harrogate, not London

Speed limits should be reduced

Read more:

Beech Grove a ‘brilliant update’ to the area

Visions to improve Harrogate

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Beech Grove and other traffic schemes ‘never have desired effect’

My own Beech Grove survey

Low Traffic Neighbourhood is expensive folly

Harrogate apply for city status?

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Valley Gardens was perfect place for Christmas market

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Bikes aren’t an option for many older people

The council needs an app so more people can report accidents

Station Gateway will benefit far more people than cyclists

Read more:

Businesses are right to be worried about Station Gateway

Gateway is ill-conceived and needs scrapping

Station Gateway is best thing to happen to Harrogate for years

Ripon needs a First World War walking tour

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Time to deal with these dangerous gases

Scrap the Station Gateway

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Harrogate should have had a bypass

Traffic concern over Beech Grove

Station Gateway “a waste of money”

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Spofforth homes would be a “disaster”