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. See below for details on how to contribute.

E-scooter scourge

Recently I have noticed an increase in the use of electric scooters in the Harrogate town centre.

I am aware that the use of such is illegal on both road and footpath, yet this appears not to be preventing their increased use.

A few months back I was surprised to see one being ridden in the dark by a youth dressed in dark clothing. He seemed to come out of nowhere, riding it down the middle of the road. When I protested all I received was a barrage of foul-mouthed abuse!

Recently my wife and I were forced to step aside for another scooter rider, who crossed West Park from the Stray, using the crossing, but then entered back on to the road in Tower Street.

I’ve tried to find a police officer to ask what is being done to keep us safe from this blight. I couldn’t find one! I’ve reported my near misses, using NYP’s online system, but haven’t had a reply!

Could you find out what their plan is?

Richard Abbott, Harrogate

Use ornamental gravel instead of fake grass

A good alternative to the fake grass in the planters in Harrogate would be ornamental gravel. Easy to maintain and not costly. It would look much more attractive than plastic grass.

Sylvia Barnes, Knaresborough

Random approach to recycling 

We need investigative journalism

Well done for pursuing council secrecy with your articles this week — good investigative journalism.

Hardly anyone in North Yorkshire got the chance to elect councillors this time round “because it would be confusing with an impending change of government structure [in two years]”.  We need journalists to keep up the pressure.

Bob Hankinson, Harrogate

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. See below for details on how to contribute.

Malcolm’s history walks are a real treat

How fortunate we are to have local historian, Malcolm Neesam, who is so interested in the history of Harrogate that we can all enjoy two virtual walks with his knowledge of the town.

The walks are beautifully set up on the best website I have seen with maps, photos and information clearly displayed. A real treat!

Thank you, Malcolm!

Audrey Culling, Nidderdale 

Recycling rules don’t make recycling easy

We are lucky to have birdsong – do your bit to keep it going

Read more: 

• Local historian creates audio walks celebrating Harrogate’s glorious past
• Fears of fly-tipping in Harrogate district as recycling centres close

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. See below for details on how to contribute.

Does Marilyn not know about climate change?

Does Marilyn Stowe really not understand? The growth in cycling provision in Leeds or Harrogate is not to provide for the few people that already cycle.

The intention is to persuade a lot more people to cycle. Does she not know about climate change and melting polar ice?

Her article on Stray Ferret is just so incredible.

Andrew Willoughby, Knaresborough

Why prioritise cyclists when Harrogate needs parking?

I wrote to North Yorkshire County Council twice last year about the experiences of towns that have installed harmful, counter-productive cycling lanes and low-traffic neighbourhoods.

I wrote that the planners of those towns might be forgiven for not anticipating how damaging the reality of their schemes was going to be – because there were no precedents. Our councils here have no such excuse, not with the evidence from other towns writ large since 2017.

Throughout five different journeys by car, in and out of town, Monday to Friday last week, I counted 12 cyclists — in mild and sunny weather. We really don’t have many homegrown cyclists – for good reason.

The hills on Harrogate’s town-centre access routes, together with wet and windy weather, discourage cycling for local residents. Dedicated cycling lanes will never change that.

It is different for hobby cyclists. They are mostly the ones to be seen on high days and holidays, often grouped on the roads, identifiable by their distinctive apparel and indifferent to bad weather. They are rarely spotted using our shops and cafes or services.

Are we really going to make changes that prioritise cyclists over our entire population, when our town is in dire need of footfall, residents and visitors to shop and pile goods into their cars, or to drive into town to enjoy cafes and restaurants again? Surely we should be welcoming all comers and that means providing plentiful parking if we are to support the prestigious services and the famous retail heart of Harrogate.

On account of working-from-home there are already fewer cars coming into town, and perhaps fewer cyclists – a trend that may progress. Changes are coming and I think we should wait and see.

Jacky Little, Harrogate

Ripon people have chips on both shoulders

The attitudes expressed by both Harrogate borough councillors Swift and McHardy are insulting to the Scottish Nationalist Party, which exists to promote and advance the people of Scotland, and have nothing at all to do with Harrogate or Ripon.

Councillor McHardy’s response is quite typical of the constant whinging from people in Ripon, which is completely unwilling to accept that in 1974 Ripon was absorbed into the Harrogate district. We fail to see any similar grouses from other towns in the district, such as Knaresborough, Boroughbridge or Pateley Bridge, who seem prepared to work with Harrogate Borough Council to get the best deal for their locality.

Ripon seems to live in the past and many Ripon city councillors, who incidentally are often Harrogate borough councillors and North Yorkshire county councillors too, seem to regularly be elected on the basis of their anti-Harrogate Borough Council attitudes.

It’s often said that Ripon people are well-balanced because they have a chip on both shoulders.

John Edmonstone, Ripon

Read more: 

• Marilyn Stowe: They’ve made a dog’s breakfast of cycle lanes in Leeds
• Ripon grievances ‘like listening to the SNP’, says councillor

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. See below for details on how to contribute.

One-way traffic safety concerns

I fully support the changes specific to Oatlands Road, including the 20mph speed limit, double yellow lines along the Stray and additional safety crossings that will improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. But I am really not sure if speed bumps help. Experience in St Winifred’s Road shows that people tend to accelerate between them.

However, I do not support the introduction of one-way controls at St Winifred’s Road and St Hilda’s Road.

Under this proposal, all traffic from Oatlands wishing to enter St Hilda’s Road, St Catherine’s Road and St Ronan’s Road (about 180 properties) must travel down St Winifred’s Road or approach along St Catherine’s, St Hilda’s or St Leonard’s roads from Hookstone or from Wetherby Road at St Winifred’s Avenue where there is already a real pinch point.

Traffic will still be allowed to enter St Winifred’s Road from St Winifred’s Avenue but not allowed to exit onto Oatlands. This means any delivery drivers and visitors will have to do a three-point turn. Refuse collections will need to be re-routed.

From 8.30am every morning there is only single file traffic for the full length of St Winifred’s Road due to parking on both sides of the road by Harrogate hospital workers.

Cyclists most certainly will not have a safe passage from St Winifred’s Avenue to Oatlands, having to cycle against one-way traffic and three-point turns.

I have tried to envisage what will happen at school drop-off and pick-up time. Many driveways at the Oatlands end of St Winifred’s Road are already blocked by cars waiting to pick up children. Imagine delivery and other drivers having to turn around in these circumstances with many schoolchildren passing on the pavements.

There are real safety and environmental concerns raised by the one-way proposal and surely an in-depth and professional study should be undertaken before this proposal progresses further.

David Leah, St Winifred’s Road, Harrogate

Bilton’s iron bridge was once wooden

I just have to write a small note for those of us who are now quite elderly and who lived in Bilton in their youth. What you now call the iron bridge was known as the wooden bridge as it was, of course, made of wood. It was not dark and gloomy but light and airy and a wonderful place to stand and spot trains!

On another note, thank you for the Stray Ferret. I live in the United States and miss my dear Yorkshire and Harrogate in particular very much so my daily dose of local news brings me great comfort.

Bridgett Parrette, United States

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. See below for details on how to contribute.

Don’t sell Ripon Spa Baths

Let people and businesses enjoy the Stray!

With reference to Barry Adams’ letter about turning the Stray into an ‘uncontrolled beer garden‘.

As a reminder of the past year, we have endured a pretty significant event in our history. Living through a pandemic, through lockdown and (understandably) having limited travel enforcements, it’s been a pretty torrid time. The proposal, which I understand was knocked back by the Duchy of Lancaster, provided a way of establishing some level of normality and relief.

I’m always amazed when people want to prevent the enjoyment of others. Our town is gifted with a huge piece of land, yet some people feel it’s their place to make sure others can’t make full use of it. Grass grows back; we learned this from the after events of the UCI Cycling Championship. You’d never know it took place.

I think it’s a shame that the Duchy didn’t let these proposals go ahead. It would have been an uplift for the town. The Stray needs to be considered an area for common enjoyment, not some kind of area to be looked at from a distance or at speed. It’s great to see folk of all ages using the Stray for whatever sort of celebration. If there was ever a good time to make full use of the Stray, it’s now.

Stu Mitchell, Pannal Ash

Never a better time than now to open up the Stray

The Stray IS for the people’s benefit, surely? We need to be outdoors as much as possible. The alternative? Little space outdoors means more people indoors = more possibility of infection rates going up.

There was never a better reason for opening the Stray than for such a purpose, in my view.

Has this person not heard of the many events held on the Stray where people buy drinks, and food?

Please, Harrogate, let the people use this tiny slither of the Stray for their health, if nothing else.

Teresa Liddell Shepherd, Harrogate

Recycling rules

I queued to get into the Wetherby Road recycling depot with a fridge in a trailer. No trailers were allowed but I managed to get rid of it anyway.

Maybe I have just fallen foul of a rule which has been in for a while but I wonder how the council expects people to get rid of bulky items, which won’t go in a small car or are too dirty, eg too many clippings for the fortnightly green bin collection or too wet and leafy to decently burn and would have gone into the large recycling skips.

Trivial but infuriating.

Pete Dennis, Harrogate

Got 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. See below for details on how to contribute.

Don’t let the Stray become an uncontrolled beer garden

I am aware Harrogate Borough Council has said (subject to feedback from the Duchy of Lancaster) consideration is being given as to whether hospitality businesses can use limited parts of the Stray.

Whatever the proposal is, I object most strongly. When this was allowed last summer it was a most unpleasant experience having to battle your way through groups of people obviously influenced by alcohol.

The area of the Stray in question on Montpellier Parade looked a disgrace and gave the wrong impression of Harrogate. We do not want a proliferation of tables and chairs all over Montpelier Stray or indeed any part of West Park Stray.

Will the free and unhindered use and access to those parts of the Stray still be allowed for all and not just restricted to customers frequenting those particular outlets? And what about those that cannot expand onto the Stray?

The council should honour and uphold the purpose of the Stray Act. If it is ignored this time then it will inevitably happen again, which will open up a can of worms. Why should some hospitality outlets be treated differently to others who do not have such opportunities?

The Stray Act is in place for a good reason to safeguard the Stray against encroachment from all quarters. It protects and limits the use of the Stray so that it remains an intrinsic and a unique asset of community value for the benefit of the town and its visitors as a whole.

It is not for commercial exploitation and benefit by a limited few, especially as some uncontrolled beer garden.

What is the point of a law if it is broken when it becomes inconvenient to an individual or certain parties, including local authorities?

Why is the council therefore seeking a consultation on the interpretation of a law which is already in place? Is the council, as custodian of the Stray, incapable of making such a management decision?

Barry Adams, Harrogate

Consider making Parliament Street in Harrogate two-way

As a transport and distribution professional of over 50 years experience, it is obvious that one traffic lane on Station Road is going to massively slow traffic on this major Harrogate throughway. Two lanes are vital and an ageing population is hardly likely to be encouraged to bike to and through the town.

The problems will not be solvable until another way through the centre is opened up and perhaps looking at making Parliament Street two-way should at least  be considered. With Debenhams going it is no longer the main street in Harrogate and two-way traffic would be the cheapest of all solutions.

Brian Hicks, Pateley Bridge

Councillor’s ‘wild’ covid death claims are inaccurate

Regarding the wild claims by this councillor, based on his experience as a funeral director:

1 Does he not know that the excess death figure is a verifiable guide as to how many deaths were from covid, not only for the UK but for every country in the world that records those statistics [most of them]?

2 There may be more — because influenza hospitalisations have dropped dramatically — as well as other illnesses. Hence associated deaths will have dropped.

3 Car accident deaths are very likely to have dropped because of months of lockdown.

Therefore the figure is likely to be actually more than the excess death rate.

Teresa Liddell Shepherd, Harrogate

Got 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. See below for details on how to contribute.

Harrogate’s Army Foundation College saves young people

Network Rail has questions to answer about tree felling

Your journalist reports that ‘some trees have been felled’ at Hornbeam Park. As a Harrogate resident living on Tewit Well Road, I want to report that all the trees have been felled. Tell it as it is, please.

We now have a situation where residents are having to prevent some of the young people of Harrogate putting themselves at risk and using this newly cleared area for their own purposes. When the line had mature trees, we may have the occasional leaf on the line, but we certainly didn’t have youngsters jumping over to sunbath, party etc.

I’m afraid Network Rail has a lot to answer for here. A poor ecological management decision has left local residents policing an area that was once a mature habitat for local wildlife.

Who was the ecologist who advised Network Rail? Are they not accountable for the habitat decimation that we have been left with? How can they say anything other than recovery will take years? Is Network Rail pleased with the result?’

Not impressed.

Charlie McCarthy
Local resident

Questions that need answering about Beech Grove

As a resident and local business owner of 11 years, I and many others strongly believe the Low Traffic Neighbourhood experiment on Beech Grove creates more congestion, longer car journey times and increased carbon emissions on surrounding roads.

Otley Road currently has major road works and the planned 20-week cycle lane construction will cause further disruption and congestion.

There are many unanswered questions for North Yorkshire County Council:

1. What is the overall aim of this Low Traffic Neighbourhood?
2. In the latest council meeting we were told that the cycling groups are being consulted to make these decisions. Why are the cycling groups being consulted and the residents and businesses, who pay taxes and rates, not consulted?
3. How do you measure success or failure?
4. What data are you collecting and where from?
5. Which company are you using to analyse this?
6. Did you count how many cyclists and motorists use the roads, before you closed them?
7. Is information collected during the same months of the year, so you can directly compare activity in all seasons and weather?
8. Is it the best time to do this during a lockdown?
9. Why did NYCC approve all the housing developments, each with 2-3 cars, when 84% of people expressed that Harrogate was congested in the 2019 survey?
10.  What’s the projection of people who will swap their cars for bikes and what is this based on?
11. Far more people walk than cycle and yet the pavements are shocking, they are left for months after the Autumn leaves fall without being cleared and go untreated in ice and snow. How does this encourage people to walk?
12. Where is the evidence that there is an appetite for more cycling?

I have spoken to many residents and businesses and cars are critical for the school run, appointments, visiting relatives, holidays, tourism but, most importantly, to access businesses.

Cars are the lifeblood of many businesses and thousands of jobs depend on them. Banning them cannot be the only solution.

Lucy Gardiner, Harrogate Residents Association

Why is government spending so much on roads?

Got 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.

Do the planners ever cycle the routes they propose?

Why do North Yorkshire County Council feel it necessary to have a cycle lane to Knaresborough on the A59 when there is one already from Bilton Lane to Mother Shipton’s? It would be better if it was upgraded instead.

There is also an off road cycle path towards Harrogate from Knaresborough adjacent to the A59 but not as long as the one proposed. Interestingly the gradient from Mother Shipton’s to the junction of Bilton is around 3.13%.

They also give priority to traffic from the golf club. Further down there is an entrance to a farm field that also has priority over the cycle track.

It would be interesting to know how much cycling the people who plan these routes actually do. Or if they actually visit the sites rather than just viewing them on a two-dimensional drawing?

Catherine Alderson, Harrogate

Let’s have “wider thinking” on town planning

Members have contacted us with concerns about the proposed Station Gateway development and the potential negative impact in businesses.

Creating a better link between the train station (and bus station) and Harrogate town centre makes sense. Yet there has to be some doubt that these plans will really deliver those objectives.

We also have to consider the impact on businesses in Harrogate and the fact that Harrogate is a visitor destination, with many more people arriving by car than by bus or train.

My main concern is that this proposal is an example of “pocket thinking” in terms of planning. It feels opportunistic to do something because the money is coming from elsewhere. It is right to access funds, and yet in re-purposing a town such as Harrogate, there has to be a whole town approach as opposed to this pocket thinking of convenience.

By restricting traffic in one place, it is likely that congestion will move elsewhere and so there is no reduced traffic and no reduced carbon emission.

By improving the look and facilities in one part of town, does another part suffer from a lack of investment? In many ways the visual impression of James Street is an improvement. Interestingly it contains images of shops, and unless the footfall can be improved (footfall and accessibility go hand in hand), these shops will simply not exist. Furthermore, Harrogate has examples of pedestrianised areas that have not added to the image of the town, so the same mistakes should not be repeated.

Finally, will it be good for business?  These proposals remove parking spaces, forcing people to walk in, cycle in or take the bus. I suspect that the development of electric cars will move quicker than improvements in public transport, and yet more and more local authorities want to remove cars and accessibility.

Harrogate deserves wider thinking and ownership of a vision for the whole town rather than development in bite size chunks

Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association (former Harrogate resident)

Don’t give up Paul! 

To Paul Baverstock (Strayside Sunday)

Your Sunday messages are absolutely brilliant. I love ’em. I sincerely hope you don’t get assassinated by our Binary Democracy. Per Ardua Ad Astra.

Peter Bell

Read More:

• Is there any consensus on Harrogate’s Station Gateway project? 
• Andrew Jones MP criticised for his “news” website

We must accept plans that reduce car use

Repair the green shelters on West Park Stray

I travel on the West Park Stray on a daily basis and my heart sinks every time I pass the two semi-derelict shelters.

They have never had any repair or maintenance on them apart from being decorated in an awful green colour. What do visitors think when they encounter them? What were wonderful shelters have become, on Harrogate Borough Council’s watch, unsightly.

Because of their leaning structure they are also becoming unsafe and could be lost to the town. Has the council any scheduled plans in place for refurbishment before the shelters fall down?

Ken Richardson, Harrogate

Got 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. 

The criteria for secondary school places

Come to Harrogate they say. Pay an inflated house price for the quality of local schools, low crime levels and green spaces.

Let’s face it, the majority of parents choose to live in Harrogate for access to outstanding schools. That’s why we moved here. But that is all well and good if you can actually access these schools.

When March approaches, parents continuously press the refresh button on their email to see if they live close enough to or have been committed enough to their faith to secure a place at the nearest ‘outstanding’ community faith school.

Disappointingly, this year the computer said No. My friends felt confident that their commitment to church, alongside their proximity to St Aidan’s would secure them a place.

Instead, they were offered their fourth choice, and although North Yorkshire County Council claim 90 per cent of children got their first choice school, I wonder how many children from Harrogate this applied to?

What frustrates even more, is when a child who lives less than a mile away is overlooked for a child who lives more than 10 miles away, even though both parents have shown the same amount of commitment to their faith. Surely the council have some environmental principles by giving places to those who can walk to school over someone who needs transport to get there.

As a family who show commitment to our faith, alongside paying an inflated price for our house, we are now not convinced that living here is worth both of these things.

Kate Tiffen, Harrogate

Simple, cheap ideas to boost Harrogate

Now is not the time for Harrogate to rest on its laurels. The old saying ‘a business stood still is a business in decline’ is true. It’s not until you live in the town centre that you realise just how many visitors we have every week.

Some places, like Glasgow and Liverpool, have changed dramatically over recent years, catching up Harrogate for attractions and facilities.

These and other towns are giving Harrogate stiff competition for the exhibition and events industry, which has been the lifeblood of the town for the last 50 years. Our hotels and the supporting service industries rely on visitors to survive but what have we done and what should we be doing to keep Harrogate ahead of the competition?

The simple photo opportunity picture frame at the top of Montpellier is a good example of catering for the tourists that didn’t break the bank.

We need 50 more suggestions as good as that and implement the best 20 ASAP. The following ideas have been thought of before but would still be an asset.

Illuminated fountains at the Prince of Wales Christchurch and New Park roundabouts – any one entering the town from North South East or West would be impressed with their visit even before they got out of the car.

Rename the town Harrogate Spa with welcome signs a mile or so before each roundabout saying Welcome to Harrogate Spa.

Having directed tourists to Bettys they were impressed by the war memorial area and commented how lovely it was – at night it’s black – why isn’t the column floodlit to form a centre of attraction that would enhance the overall impressions of the town?

The war memorial illuminations, along with stone cleaning the column, should be given priority. The council’s park department does a great job throughout the town. I am just concerned that if we don’t ring the changes quickly visitors to the the town will dwindle and so will we.

David Birtles, Harrogate

Birk Crag litter hero and villains

My family and I walked through the woods at Birk Crag on Sunday. I was really disappointed at the amount of litter, particularly beer bottles, drinks cups and cartons up there on the crags and in the woods.

Got 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.