North Yorkshire Council (NYC) have announced what they intend to do with the money they have left from their 2017 National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) bid.
TL;DR
- Harrogate Cycleway 1 (Knaresborough to Cardale Park) has been council cycle strategy since 2015. It is hugely disappointing that NYC has been incapable of delivering its own plan, and appears now to be abandoning it
- We support the creation of a 20mph zone and congratulate the Oatlands and Pannal Ash campaigners on getting this commitment from the council
- This is supposed to be a ‘sustainable transport’ package, but the biggest single item of expenditure is aimed at increasing capacity for motor vehicles on Otley Road
- It is a good idea to add a raised table to the crossing of Cold Bath Road near Sainsbury’s
- An uncontrolled crossing is not really a crossing at all because it gives priority to drivers. The proposed uncontrolled crossings at Western Primary and Ashville College should be zebras
- Cycle parking needs to go hand in hand in with safe cycle routes. New cycle parking on Cold Bath Road is of far less benefit without a safe cycle route. We are being offered icing but no cake
- The proposed cycle signage review is a waste of £25,000 of public money. There was already a thorough review of cycle signage in 2014
- The ‘potential’ Nursery Lane leisure cycle route is either padding for a press release or a way of parking the money until it can be used for something else. No cycle track is needed, the route is fine as it is, and it would only be of significant value in combination with an Otley Road Cycleway. It is in any event very unlikely to happen in the next 5 years. £100,000 is allocated to this, which would be a shocking waste of public money
NPIF – Background to Funding
The original NPIF award to North Yorkshire was just over £4.2 million in 2017, and they have either £565,000 or £585,000 left.
At NYC’s invitation we made a submission about the best use of the remaining funds, which was (in summary):
- complete Otley Road Cycleway
- put in an LTN 1/20-compliant cycle scheme on Beech Grove (Low Traffic Neighbourhood, or bi-directional cycle track instead of the parking)
- parallel crossing of Otley Road near the junction with Beech Grove
NYC have ignored all of our suggestions.
Otley Road Cycleway De-Funded
Since 2015, part of the council’s cycling strategy has been to build Harrogate Cycleway 1, a high-quality segregated route between Knaresborough and Cardale Park.
In 2017 they made a successful bid for funding from NPIF for the Otley Road part of the route, which was to be from the Prince of Wales roundabout to Cardale Park. The other elements of the bid involved widening junctions for motor vehicles.
NYC have widened the junctions for motor vehicles, but failed to deliver the cycleway.
A small part of it was built to poor standards in 2021, then NYC abandoned the rest in 2023 despite majority support for it to go ahead.
Executive Member for Transport Keane Duncan calls the cycleway ‘unpopular’, but this is misleading propaganda because the most recent consultation showed majority support for it.
Regrettably, NYC does not stand up to any level of opposition to its active travel strategy and plans. Some local people will always object to any scheme that makes meaningful changes to benefit cycling. In the absence of determination on the part of the council to see its plans through to delivery, there is little hope for the creation of a quality cycle network.
Measures to be Taken Forward
The reports pack for a council ACC meeting on 14th September 2023 contains the measures proposed to be taken forward using the remaining NPIF money.
1) 20mph Zone (Items 3 and 8 in Table 1 above)
A new 20mph zone is to be created, as requested by Pannal Ash Safe Streets Zone and Oatlands Road Safety and Active Travel Campaign.
The markings on the map are:
- red dots – schools
- red lines – A roads or strategic roads that are to remain 30mph
- green lines – existing 20mph roads
- pink lines – new 20mph roads where traffic calming is needed
- blue and yellow shading – extent of the proposed 20mph zone (signed-only 20mph, except for the pink line roads)
Credit to the 20mph Campaigns
The credit for the commitment to the new 20mph zone should go to the Oatlands and Pannal Ash campaigns. They have run effective campaigns involving schools and head teachers.
20mph and Cycling
If NYC delivers on its commitment to a 20mph zone, there will be some incidental benefit to cycling, but it will not make cycling to school safe on its own, and does not amount to an intelligent and well-thought-out cycle strategy.
20mph is useful in combination with other measures such as modal filters, and dedicated, physically-protected cycle tracks on busier streets. We have put together plans for a coherent network for the town. NYC appears to have no interest in building a coherent cycle network.
Funding
Traffic-calming measures for Cold Bath Road and Arthurs Avenue are to come out of the NPIF money. The council should be putting traffic calming on these streets, but should not be taking money away from its cycle strategy to fund it.
It appears that traffic calming on Pannal Ash Road will come out of NYC’s capital budget for 2024/5.
It is not clear where the money for traffic calming would come from on the other pink line streets. It appears from Table 2 (see point 8 below) that Green Lane and Yew Tree Lane are specifically excluded from the NPIF 20mph programme).
Question for NYC: where is the money for traffic calming coming from for the other pink line streets?
Beech Grove
Beech Grove appears to be within the 20mph zone but is not one of the pink line streets with traffic calming planned.
Questions for NYC: is Beech Grove to be made 20mph, and will traffic calming be put in? When? What is the source of funding?
Hookstone Road and Drive
Hookstone Road and Hookstone Drive are regarded by NYC as a strategic route for through traffic and not suitable for 20mph. To be safe for cycling, they require a dedicated, physically-protected cycle track, but this is not acknowledged by NYC.
Instead, the council’s solution is to ‘refresh the road markings and improve the signing in the area, where required’.
This is of no value.
2) Replacement Traffic Lights at the Cold Bath Road Junction on Otley Road (Item 1 in Table 1)
At £200,000, the amount being spent on traffic lights is the largest single item of expenditure in Table 1.
‘This will improve traffic movement and congestion between the two signalised junctions to increase capacity’.
nyc in table 1
The NPIF/West Harrogate money is billed as a sustainable transport package. Private cars are not sustainable transport.
The NPIF money should be used to prioritise active and sustainable travel; anyone choosing to travel by car is entitled to do so, but should not be prioritised above those walking wheeling and cycling, according to the transport hierarchy.
This is what Keane Duncan recently told us about the transport hierarchy and prioritising sustainable travel:
‘In our recent meeting with Active Travel England their messaging was very clear about the need to promote walking, wheeling and cycling as an alternative to the car. Active travel modes are at the top of the transport hierarchy and are prioritised with walking and wheeling considered first, followed by cyclists. The Otley Road Sustainable Transport Package provides an opportunity to make the streets on and around Otley Road feel safer and more connected, encouraging people to walk, cycle or take a bus rather than get in private motor vehicles for short/medium journeys.’
cllr keane duncan
In allocating the NPIF money, NYC are not following the transport hierarchy described by Councillor Duncan.
Questions for NYC: why is the largest item of expenditure on unsustainable travel? Can the money be redirected to sustainable travel, for example zebra crossings at Western Primary and Ashville College? Do the planned new traffic lights at the Otley Road/Cold Bath Road create a Toucan crossing? Will they give more time and priority to people on foot and on bikes in accordance with the transport hierarchy?
3) Crossings on Cold Bath Road (Items 4 and 5 in Table 1)
The Pelican crossing near Sainsbury’s/Falcon Chiropractic on Cold Bath Road is to have a raised table added. This is a good idea.
The notes in Table 1 say that NYC want to move the cycle stands near that crossing – but they’ve only just put them in! This is a bad idea – the cycle stands are not in the way.
A new uncontrolled crossing is to be installed outside Western Primary. An uncontrolled crossing is not really a crossing at all. It’s just a suggestion about where people might cross the road, but cars have priority.
What’s needed is a zebra crossing.
Question for North Yorkshire: can the crossing at Western Primary be a zebra?
4) Cycle Parking on Cold Bath Road (Item 9 in Table 1)
NYC propose some new cycle parking on Cold Bath Road without specifying where.
That’s ok, but it is an example of NYC proposing to do the easy and cheap things that no one will object to, without being prepared to do the hard work of creating safe cycle routes. They are doing the icing but no cake.
Safe cycle routes and cycle parking need to go hand in hand. We have put forward a proposal to improve Cold Bath Road for active travel.
A more ambitious cycle parking proposal would be cycle hangars, which could be used by people who live in flats on and around Cold Bath Road, and who do not have garages or other safe places to store bikes.
Question for North Yorkshire: can you put in cycle hangars in the Cold Bath Road area?
5) Cycle Signage Review (Item 7 in Table 1)
NYC say they want to improve cycle route signage. This was already done comprehensively in 2014, and does not need doing again. Any issues should be picked up on an ad hoc basis.
The council lacks the will to build the safe cycle routes that are needed, so it just signposts unsafe routes instead. Signposting fundamentally unsafe cycle routes is not worthwhile, especially when it has already been done.
The projected cost is £25,000, which is a waste of public money.
Questions for North Yorkshire: why do you think a review of cycle signage is needed? Who is going to do the review – is money going to consultants?
6) Crossing of Green Lane at Ashville College (Item 6 in Table 1)
Again, NYC are not proposing a proper crossing, but an ‘uncontrolled crossing’ where drivers have priority. There is some talk of improved visibility.
An uncontrolled crossing is not a crossing at all. A zebra crossing is required.
Question for North Yorkshire: can the crossing of Green Lane be a zebra? Cancel the capacity increase for motor vehicles at the Cold Bath Road/Otley Road junction if you need funding.
7) Nursery Lane (Item 10 in Table 1)
The press release says that Nursery Lane ‘will be upgraded to allow cyclists to use as an off-road leisure route’. Table 1 in the reports pack says it is a ‘potential improvement’, but makes clear that third party land would be needed.
Comment:
- Nursery Lane may have been put in to pad out the announcement and make it look as though NYC is doing something for cycling, but it is almost certainly not going to happen
- alternatively, it may be a way of parking the funding until it can be transferred to another project – most likely widening a junction for motor vehicles
- NPIF is supposed to be about jobs and growth, and should be providing proper high-quality cycle routes that people can use for going to school or to work. NYC are treating cycling as a leisure activity not a mode of transport
- Nursery Lane could be a useful cycle route between Otley Road and Harlow Moor Road if there were an Otley Road Cycleway. Again, it’s the icing not the cake. Unless the council builds the ‘spine’ routes, the ‘ribs’ on their own are of little use
- You can already cycle along Nursery Lane, no problem. There’s no through traffic so no traffic danger to cyclists, and absolutely no need for a cycle track
- £100,000 for a route that would not be joined up nor form part of a coherent network, and which already exists, is a shocking waste of public money
Measures Not Being Taken Forward
NYC have created a special table for things that they’re not intending to do with the NPIF money.
8) Beech Grove
The proposed crossing of Otley Road near its junction with Beech Grove is being deferred to be considered as part of West Harrogate Urban Expansion.
It has nothing at all to do with the proposed West Harrogate Urban Expansion, and any road traffic measures related to those developments are likely to be many years away.
Similarly, some tinkering with the Beech Grove/Lancaster Road junction is worthless, and unacceptatble as a replacement for the modal filters ripped out by NYC.
9) Green Lane and Yew Tree Lane
Table 2 excludes Green Lane and Yew Tree Lane from the 20mph zone being created with NPIF money.
Next Steps
The package is to be considered by the Area Constituency Committee of NYC on 14th September 2023.
The reports pack for the meeting says (para. 9.1 of the NPIF report) that there will then be a report to the Corporate Director in October or November 2023 asking for permission to start design work, and a further report to the Corporate Director with a costed delivery programme in April 2024.
‘Work on this package will therefore be in the 2024/25 financial year’.
The reports in the local papers say that the aim is to implement the measures ‘early next year’. According to NYC’s own timetable, that is not the case.
It is pretty clear that it will be 2025 at the earliest before we see any work start.