This post contains background information for York & North Yorkshire’s Active Travel Commissioner, in advance of a meeting.
1) About Harrogate Cycle Action
We were set up to work with the councils (at the time, Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council). The intention was that we would provide local knowledge to assist the development of a network of cycle routes in Harrogate.
Unfortunately, for 10 years (2014-2024) nothing meaningful was delivered. If our role is ‘critical friend’, we have been obliged to become more critical as promise after promise has been broken by North Yorkshire.
2) Harrogate Cycleway 1
In 2015, the big idea in the Harrogate Cycling Delivery Plan and accompanying map was Harrogate Cycleway 1.
It was going to provide a high-quality, segregated cycle route from Knaresborough in the north east to Cardale Park in the south west.
Unfortunately almost nothing of it has been delivered in 10 years due to:
- lack of commitment and drive on the part of the Council Executive
- lack of commitment from senior NYC Highways officers
- lack of skills and capacity from other officers
Otley Road
‘Phase 1‘ of Otley Road cycleway was delivered to poor standards 4 years after it was funded.
‘Phase 2‘ was then abandoned despite majority support for going ahead, leaving a problem of broken links in the cycle network.
Apparently ‘Phase 3’ is going ahead – but NYC are ignoring Active Travel England’s advice that it should be a footway and separate cycle track.
This has left the council with a ‘some bits but not others’ strategy on Otley Road, which obviously will not enable modal shift to cycling.
Q: could you look into the design of Otley Road cycleway Phase 3 and make sure it is as good as it can be?
Q: could you make sure that Otley Road and Beech Grove provide a cycle route into the town centre?
Knaresborough Road
There is a 2016 design for a cycleway on A59 Knaresborough Road from Forest Lane to the Empress roundabout, but nothing has been done with it.
One of NYC’s ATF2 schemes was a cycleway on A59 Knaresborough Road between High Bridge and Forest Lane, but the council abandoned it.
Knaresborough Road features in Harrogate’s medium-term cycling priorities, but we have little confidence in the council’s commitment to delivering on-the-ground improvements.
High Bridge and the missing link in the current A59 cycle path are at the top of Knaresborough’s cycling priorities and the Area Committee has funded design work.
The current position is that NYC officers (Jasmin Gibson and Alex Kay) are waiting for a meeting with ATE to see if cycling improvements to High Bridge and the missing link can be funded through ATE’s Active Travel Fund.
Our concern is that High Bridge itself is impossible to bring up to LTN 1/20 standards without building a second bridge, and this may mean that the missing link doesn’t get funding either.
That would be another big setback for Harrogate Cycleway 1.
The missing link is very important, because cycling on the 50mph dual carriageway is horrible. The video below shows the problem.
York has similar problems with its city centre bridges.
I suggest the correct approach is to make what improvements you can on the bridge, and resolve the problem of the missing link; don’t use the difficulties with the bridge as an excuse to abandon cycle provision on the route as a whole.
Time and time again, LTN 1/20 is used by NYC as an excuse NOT to provide cycle infrastructure, rather than as intended to improve the quality of cycle infrastructure delivered.
Q: would you be able to look into the High Bridge/missing link scheme, and perhaps attend the meeting with ATE?
3) Schemes Delivered in 2025
Two modest active travel schemes have been delivered in 2025.
This is thanks to NYC Highways Area 6 Improvements Manager Jasmin Gibson. When her post didn’t exist, nothing got done.
The schemes are Victoria Avenue and a Wetherby Road crossing.
Victoria Avenue
The Victoria Avenue scheme was funded by ATF2 from 2020. The original bid was for four cycling schemes, none of which were delivered.
The final scheme was low-ambition, and included quite a lot of routine maintenance of the footway.
The cycling had been stripped out of it, but at least we got low-level cycle lights with early release.
Crossing of Wetherby Road
The Wetherby Road crossing for Slingsby Walk had been discussed for at least 10 years before it was finally delivered in Autumn 2025.
It is very welcome. The only quibble is the length of time it takes for lights to change. Sensors check for motor vehicles and prioritise them if they are present.
Q: could you look into the timings of crossings in North Yorkshire?
The council never uses the ‘pre-timed maximum’, and so people on foot or on bikes are made to wait before they can cross, whether someone else has just crossed or not.
While the delivery of these two schemes is welcome, NYC still hasn’t delivered any cycle infrastructure.
4) Harrogate Station Gateway
Harrogate Station Gateway started off as an ambitious sustainable transport project in 2019. There was a two-way cycle track on Station Parade, and motor vehicle traffic was reduced to one lane.
In the face of a legal challenge, the council Executive caved in. The scheme was reoriented towards moving motor vehicles, and the ambitious active travel elements were removed.
As things stand, the one-way cycle track in the plans won’t link up to any other cycle facilities and so will be of little use. We have made suggestions as to how it can be linked up.
Q: could you get involved and make sure the cycle infrastructure that is built links up to other routes and therefore enables people to cycle? (It would involve the Major Projects Team, Matt Roberts, coordinating with Area 6, Jasmin Gibson, to ensure that the cycle track on Station Parade links to a planned cycleway on Victoria Avenue).
Q: there is a specific design issue where NYC is refusing to give cyclists early release at the junction between Lower Station Parade and Station Parade. Could you encourage the council to make this small improvement to the plans?
The Combined Authority is paying for a ‘traffic throughput’ element of Station Gateway, which will have no sustainable transport benefits.
I believe the A61 junctions concerned are with King’s Road and with York Place, so at either end of the Station Gateway scheme.
Creating more capacity for motor vehicle traffic is likely to generate more motor vehicle traffic – the opposite of the aim of the CA’s Routemap to Carbon Negatives, which says we need much less.
The only way this could make sense would be if the traffic throughput scheme were combined with modal filters to block off residential road rat runs such as Swan Road and Beech Grove.
Q: will you consider making the traffic throughput funding conditional on blocking rat runs?
5) West Harrogate Urban Expansion
The West Harrogate urban expansion is accompanied by a Transport Strategy which envisages:
- no cycle infrastructure outside the developments themselves, with the exception of ‘Phase 3’ of the Otley Road cycleway. NYC refuse to build ‘Phase 2’, which means there will be no cycle link to the town centre
- expansion of capacity for motor vehicles at thirty junctions across Harrogate. Space that could have been used for cycling is being taken to expand capacity for cars
Other than Otley Road, specific concerns that arise from the Transport Strategy are:
- plans to expand capacity for motor vehicles by making Trinity Road part of the main road network. Trinity Road could otherwise be used as a cycle link between Leeds Road and Otley Road
- the failure to provide long-promised pedestrian crossings of the arms of the Prince of Wales roundabout
- failure to make the roundabout at the top of Pannal Ash Road compact
- dangerous new roundabout with wide geometry on Whinney Lane
- disappointing fragment of cycle infrastructure planned for Pannal Ash Road
- shared use on Lady Lane and Beckwith Head Road
- failure to plan cycle infrastructure on A61 Leeds Road, but instead expanding capacity for motor vehicles at junctions
- failure to plan cycle infrastructure on St George’s roundabout of A61
- expanding capacity for motor vehicles at the Woodlands junction of Wetherby Road, thereby taking space that would be needed for cycling infrastructure
The Transport Strategy was developed by NYC Highways Development Control (Keith Jameson) and consultants.
Kevin McCann is the new Strategic Transport Officer at NYC Planning, and could be an ally in trying to improve the transport proposals.
Q: Are you able to get involved in the transport plans for the West Harrogate urban expansion and help improve them?
6) HTIP
The Harrogate Transport Improvement Programme (HTIP) began in 2019 following the Congestion Survey, which showed 77% support for better walking and cycling facilities.
Since then, NYC has spent £459,186 on two reports from consultants, but we appear to be no nearer to on-the-ground improvements on the A61 Leeds Road.
The first HTIP report was withheld from the consultants who wrote the West Harrogate urban expansion Transport Strategy – so any HTIP sustainable transport proposals are not in the West Harrogate Transport Strategy.
The second HTIP report was handed to the council in July 2024, but they have not published it.
HTIP could involve cycle infrastructure on the A61 Leeds Road, but the council has already delayed for 6 years and shows no drive to make progress.
Q: can you find out the current state of the HTIP project, and encourage the council to proceed to on-the-ground improvements?
7) Sainsbury’s Junction of the A661 Wetherby Road
NYC made an ATF5 bid for pedestrian crossing facilities of the A661 Wetherby Road at Sainsbury’s.
Cycle crossing facilities at this junction are a longstanding priority of ours, but the council has excluded cycling from its scheme.
An ATE Design Review says the scheme as it stands has Policy Conflicts and multiple Critical Safety Issues. The Junction Assessment Tool gives it a score of just 17%.
We think ATE have given NYC a design idea for a cycle crossing, and encouraged them to progress work on the design.
Q: can you make sure that cycling is not excluded from this project?
8) Bilton Lane Crossing and Killinghall Improvements to the Nidderdale Greenway
Plans for a crossing of Bilton Lane, to benefit people using the Nidderdale Greenway, have been repeatedly delayed.
Improvements at the Killinghall end of the Greenway have also been delayed over many years.
9) LCWIP
An LCWIP for Harrogate & Knaresborough was completed in 2019. It identified four priority corridors.
Unfortunately, the document was then left to gather dust on a shelf.
Finally in 2024, the Area Committee of Councillors agreed to fund design work on one of the routes.
The BCR of the route, Bilton to Hornbeam Park, is said to be 8.49.
10) Greenways
The Nidderdale Greenway from Harrogate to Ripley has been a phenomenal success. Malcolm has been working on a possible extension to Pateley Bridge and beyond to Scarhouse Reservoir.
An extended greenway would be a brilliant facility for locals, and a genuine tourist attraction for the region.
Malcolm’s other current project is re-routing the NCN link from Harrogate to Spofforth.
In the 2021 A59 Multi-Modal Study there’s a proposal for a cycleway by the railway from Knaresborough to Poppleton. It would be fantastic, and help make the new Maltkiln/Hammerton development more sustainable.
11) Active Travel Team
NYC has been promising to set up an Active Travel Team since at least 2023, but nothing has happened.
Without staff with the passion and expertise to deliver active travel projects, progress will be slow or non-existent.
Q: could you find out the latest on the proposed NYC Active Travel Team?