Harrogate walkers highlight shared cycling routes and footpath concerns

A Harrogate walking group has called for public footpaths to be protected from new housing developments.

It is among a new set of proposals issued by the Harrogate Group of the Ramblers’ Association to promote walking in Harrogate and Knaresborough.

The group has suggested that developers should be required to include wide and well-lit public footpaths in all new housing areas and, if possible, link paths with nearby rights of way to provide direct and easy access into the countryside.

It also highlighted how one footpath in Killinghall, which has just reopened after four years of ‘temporary closure’, was an example of “a source of particular concern”. Temporary closure of public rights of way through building sites of new development should be restricted to a minimum amount of time necessary, the group urges.

The proposals, which have been sent to newly elected local councillors at North Yorkshire County Council, also say plans to convert footpaths and footways to shared use with cyclists should be considered on a case by case basis in order “to achieve an outcome that is not detrimental to the interests of walkers and pedestrians”.

This follows concerns about the impact of the new Otley Road cycle path in Harrogate, which includes shared access between walkers and cyclists.

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The letter to councillors says:

“At a time when both walking and cycling are being promoted both locally and nationally as desirable activities, it is particularly important that the needs and interests of the extensive walking and pedestrian community are taken into serious consideration and not just taken for granted.

“Walking is a particularly desirable activity to protect and promote, both for its benefits to the health and wellbeing of people of a very wide range of ages, including the elderly, and for its contribution to the reduction of air pollution by replacing the use of the car for many local journeys. “