Call for North Yorkshire County Council to ‘get its act together’ over active travel in Harrogate

At a meeting of the Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee in Harrogate today, North Yorkshire County Council highways officer Melisa Burnham gave a presentation to councillors that updated them on the current direction of active travel in the town.

Ms Burnham reaffirmed the reasons for scrapping the second phase of the Otley Road cycle path and said why it decided to not continue with the Beech Grove Low Traffic Neighbourhood after an 18-month pilot – she said both schemes had faced public opposition.

Ms Burnham said the council is expecting an answer from the government tomorrow on whether they have been successful in funding bids for segregated cycle routes on Victoria Avenue in Harrogate and the section of Knaresborough Road between Mother Shipton’s Cave and Harrogate Golf Club.

She also said the results of a long-awaited study into improvements in the Oatlands Drive area will be published next month.

In 2021, the council scrapped plans to make the road one-way following fierce opposition from local residents.

In 2019, the council undertook a major public consultation regarding congestion in Harrogate where over 15,000 people responded.

It showed there was an appetite for active travel as 77 per cent of respondents said they would like better walking and cycling routes.

But since the survey, only the much-criticised first phase of the Otley Road cycle path has been delivered and still remains.

This promoted Chris Aldred, Liberal Democrat councillor for High Harrogate and Kingsley, to suggest the people who said they wanted more active travel are being let down by the county council.

He said: “We need to get our act together and to be faithful to the 15,000 respondents of that survey.

£It’s even more congested than in 2019 and we need to start doing things.

"Hopefully we’ll have some more money tomorrow.

"I’d like to see that Victoria Avenue scheme happen in the next 12 months as it sends out a message we’re actually serious about active travel.”

Sam Gibbs, Conserative councillor for Valley Gardens and Central Harrogate, thanked the county council for “seeing sense” on phase two of the Otley Road cycle path.

The unspent money that was earmarked for the cycle path will now be spent on an as-yet-unannounced scheme in the Otley Road area.

Cllr Gibbs said: “Thankyou for listening.

"It’s long been a criticism of the county council, perhaps unfairly, that they haven’t always listened.

"Thank you for seeing sense on the Otley Road cycle way.

"I’m not against the idea of cycle ways but Otley Road just wasn’t working and I’m sure we can spend that money on something far better.

“I hope we’ve learned the lessons from Otley Road and other things and going forward we can get an active travel scheme that does what it says on the tin and does not hinder those that are using it.”

Ms Burnham also revealed the county council has undertaken feasibility studies into reducing traffic on Leeds Road.

She said design options are being developed and will be issued in the coming weeks.

This was welcomed by John Mann, councillor for Oatlands and Pannal.

He said: “Leeds Road is an exceedingly busy road with 27,000 vehicles a day.

"We get long queues at the Pannal and Marks and Spencer traffic lights and we get queues all the way back to Butterside Bar roundabout.

"Congestion is very severe along that road so any proposals to alleviate that would be much appreciated.”