West Harrogate residents dismayed at delays to North Yorkshire Councils housing infrastructure plan

The West Harrogate Infrastructure Delivery Strategy (WHIDS) is currently being drawn up by officers at North Yorkshire Council.

Residents hope the WHIDS will have clear objectives to ensure investment takes place into roads, schools and healthcare and it will supplement the West Harrogate Paramaters Plan (WHPP), which was approved last year.

The area features heavily in HBC’s Local Plan, with Otley Road towards Beckwithshaw, for example, set to be transformed with over a thousand new homes.

But there have been long-standing concerns from residents that the services that people rely on will be put under further strain by the new developments.

Rene Dziabas, speaking on behalf of the Western Arc Coordination Group which includes parish councils in North Rigton and Beckwithshaw as well as Harlow and Pannal Ash Residents Group, Duchy Residents Association and Hampsthwaite Action Group, addressed councillors about the delays to the document at a meeting in Harrogate on Thursday.

Mr Dziabas said he wanted to register “register our complete disatsifaction with the lack of progress” with the document.

He said: “For many years, we’ve expressed our concern that the equivalent of a small town with approximately 4,000 dwellings is being proposed for the western arc of Harrogate without improved infrastructure to be able to support such a massive development.

“By infrastructure we are not just referring to roads but to schools, medical facilities, buses etc.

"It also needs to be noted that all of this tracks back to a local plan process that started more than a decade ago and in many respects is now out of date.”

Mr Dziabas said residents had seen a draft strategy last year focused on roads, drawn up by Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council, but it was “incoherant and lacking any real structure”.

He said a full strategy would be made available in October 2022, but eight months on it has still not been published.

He added: “We have seen no hard detail whatsoever in relation to the infrastructure strategy and delivery schedule and no offer of meaningful engagement with the community.

“Therefore our overall concern is that this work when it eventually emerges will deliver an ineffective and inadequate package.”

Council officer Mark Codman read out a written statement on behalf of the planning and transport departments at North Yorkshire Council.

He said the current Harrogate Local Plan as well as the West Harrogate Parameters Plan creates a “clear framework to achieve a coordinated strategic development” in the west of Harrogate and that section 106 payments from developers can also help to pay for ongoing infrastructure improvements.

Mr Codman said work is continuing on the West Harrogate Infrastructure Delivery Strategy document.

He added: “The majority of this commission was carried out in Autumn 2022.

"The complex technical nature of the work means it is not yet complete.

"Officers are prioritising this work however the nature of strategic projects does sometimes involve unforeseen delays.

"We anticipate being in a position to hold further stakeholder engagement sessions in the next couple of months.”

After Mr Codman spoke, Liberal Democrat councillor for High Harrogate and Kingsley, Councillor Aldred, said he was “completely in agreement with the residents” and that the council needs to “get its act together”.

He said: “This has been dragging on.

"At our first meeting last year we had a similar statement from the parish councils and here we are a year later and nothing has happened.

"People are living in a state of flux when nothing is happening. It’s not fair to the residents.”