How opinion turned against controversial £11.2m Harrogate Gateway plans to transform town centre traffic system

The Harrogate-based real estate company led by commercial property owner Chris Bentley may be confident about the unpopularity of the pro-cycling scheme backed by Government funding but it wasn’t always that way in the lengthy saga of this divisive project.

There were few complaints in 2019 when the then North Yorkshire County Council held a public consultation on the Harrogate and Knaresborough Congestion Study.

The results found the majority of the public who responded to the consultation (77% of the approximately 15,000 responses) were opposed to the idea of building a new northern relief road to tackle growing traffic congestion.

Instead, there was clear majority support for implementing more sustainable transport measures, including better provision for walking and cycling, and improved public transport access.

But that, as they say, was then, this is now.

These days a wide array of important business and community groups in Harrogate say they are not against change per se, just change as outlined in the Gateway proposals.

In that number are Harrogate Civic Society, Harrogate Line Supporters Group, Harrogate Business Improvement District (BID), Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce and Independent Harrogate

This week the heat on Gateway was turned up when planning lawyers were instructed by Hornbeam Park Developments to challenge North Yorkshire Council‘s decision-making over the whole project, partly on the grounds that plans to reduce Station Parade to single lane traffic for vehicles are quietly predicted to increase rather than diminish Co2 emissions in the town centre by creating more congestion in neighbouring streets.

The proponents of a judicial review against the plans by North Yorkshire Council, which replaced North Yorkshire County Council in April as part of local government reorganisation, also allege the council failed to disclose documents relating to climate change, and failed to properly consult upon the scheme as a result.

North Yorkshire Council itself, which argues Gateway would improve links and access in the town centre, as well as making it more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians, says to slam the breaks on the project now would mean rejecting any change for years, spurning millions of pounds in funding it had won from the Government’s Transforming Cities Fund.

The councillor now leading the project, Coun Keane Duncan who took over as the council’s Executive Member for Transport in June 2022, said recently that the council would not be backing down on Gateway.

“The scheme represents a landmark investment aiming to rejuvenate the town centre, support business and encourage people to travel more sustainably,” Coun Duncan said in May.

North Yorkshire Council also claims that the not one, not two but three public consultations it has held about Gateway in the space of just two years show the project is far from universally unpopular.

The history of public consultations

First consultation: March-April 2021

1,101 survey responses:

Station Parade – of two options presented for traffic lanes, there was strongest support (49%) for the one-lane option.

James Street – 45% of respondents preferred full-time pedestrianisation, 32% preferred motor vehicle access to be always retained.

Second consultation: November-December 2021

1,320 survey responses:

Over half of respondents felt negative or very negative (56%) about Gateway rather than positive or very positive (39%).

A majority (49%) said the plans would be very/fairly successful in making it easier to walk, wheel or cycle.

Third consultation: July-August 2022.

2,044 survey responses:

To the question how successful do you feel these designs are in balancing the needs and safety of all road users (people on foot, people who cycle, bus users, private vehicle users), a small majority (45%) answered unsuccessful /very unsuccessful.

On the overall Gateway plans 46% were negative/very negative, versus 45% positive/very positive.

From those survey results it’s possible to argue that pro-cycling members of Harrogate District Cycling Action, one of the few groups now totally in favour of Gateway, are not an isolated minority, as some claim.

But such are the political complexities of shifting opinion within the town, Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrat councillors recently withdrew support from a scheme they had always backed.

That leaves North Yorkshire County Council and local Tory councillors facing a difficult choice.

Do they continue to stick to their guns and face up to powerful forces in Harrogate by going ahead with a traffic scheme they feel will improve the town centre or not?

One thing, at least, is clear. The launch of a judicial review against the £11.2 million plans this week makes it an even bigger decision than ever.

The Harrogate Advertiser has approached North Yorkshire Council for a comment.