Work on Harrogate Station Gateway is to start in ‘the New Year’ 2027.
NY Highways (in-house North Yorkshire Council contractors) have been appointed for the £13.4 million scheme.
The project, funded by the 2019 Transforming Cities Fund, has suffered from achingly slow progress by the council, and multiple legal challenges by rich, pro-car Harrogate business people.
Little is left of the original ambitious designs that reallocated road space from motor vehicles to walking and cycling, and which would have been genuinely transformative.
While we welcome the decision to proceed, a one-way cycle track on Station Parade which abandons people at the junction with Station Bridge will not enable cycling to and from the station.
We have made suggestions as to how the cycle track could form the basis of a coherent network, but there has been little enthusiasm and no action from North Yorkshire Council.
North Yorkshire Council’s press release has supportive quotes from the owners of The Exchange and the Victoria Shopping Centre.
The works could continue until Autumn 2028.