Harrogate cycling group hits out at tactics of opponents of £11.2m Harrogate project for new cycle lanes

As North Yorkshire Council prepares to face a possible legal challenge from two wealthy businessmen over the £11.2 million Harrogate Gateway project to bring cycle lanes and pedestrianisation to part of the town centre, Harrogate District Cycle Action said it was disappointed that opponents of the scheme were “still trying to knock it off course.”

The council has already said it is committed to going ahead with Harrogate Station Gateway next year utiltising funding it won from central government.

But Harrogate commercial property owner Chris Bentley, the managing director of Hornbeam Park Developments Ltd, and Yorkshire Terry Bramall CBE, a director of Doncaster Rovers, have given notice of their intention to seek a judicial review of the council’s decision-making during the last three years of the Gateway process as part of local businesses concerns that Gateway could lead to more traffic congestion and cost the town centre customers.

North Yorkshire Council said, should the legal challenge go ahead, it would defend its actions.

Mr Karl Battersby, the council’s corporate director for environment, said: “We will be responding to the pre-action protocol letter, and we will look to defend North Yorkshire Council’s position should legal action be taken.”

But Harrogate District Cycle Action said, if the judicial review did proceed and proved successful for opponents of the scheme, the £11.2 million would be lost to Harrogate.

Writing in its latest newsletter under the heading “Harrogate Station Gateway Update”, the group argued the following:

"There have been three rounds of consultation in total.

"The council was already aware of the threat of legal action before the third consultation, and presumably took great care to ensure that the correct processes were followed.

"Mr Bentley is quoted as follows: "There is so much other stuff that the town needs.”

“This is not a very convincing argument.

Funding for Station Gateway comes from the Government’s Transforming Cities Fund, and is specifically dedicated to enabling active and sustainable travel to rail and bus stations.

"It cannot be used for “other stuff.”

"A judicial review is not a re-run of the decision, but a challenge to the way it was made.

"After the initial letter, the next step would be to seek permission from the court to bring a case, usually within 3 months.

"If the case is not arguable, the court will refuse permission.”

North Yorkshire Council’s Tory-controlled executive had been expected to send a full business case this autumn for the Harrogate Gateway project to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which originally won the funding from Government.

Construction work could then start by the end of this year or early in 2024.

Harrogate District Cycle Action remains concerned that political squabbling has taken over from a focus on what is best for the town.

Its news letter says: "It’s disappointing that whenever a scheme with a cycling element is proposed in Harrogate, certain people are highly antagonistic towards it.

"Even if these people don’t ride bikes themselves, they could be generous enough to support the right of other people – including children – to do so safely.”

A majority of Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors now oppose Gateway having earlier supported it.