Harrogate Station Gateway project - make your voices heard
 

Harrogate Borough Council, North Yorkshire County Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority have secured £7.9m government money to enhance sustainable travel provisions in Harrogate town centre.

The three organisations are conducting a wide ranging consultation process and we are asking all BID levy payers and Members to make sure their views are known. The closing date is March 24, and the questionnaire can be found here.
 

 Over the next two weeks there are two online events taking place where you can find out more about the project and quiz those behind it.

• Wednesday 3 March at 6pm - please click here to go to the online event

• Wednesday 10 March at 6pm - please click here to go to the online event

Harrogate Station Gateway Project - background reading
 

Below are a series of documents which help give context to the Harrogate Station Gateway project.
 

Thank you to those businesses who have already paid this year's levy
 

We would like to thank those businesses who have already paid this year's levy, which will allow us to continue our work to enhance Harrogate town centre, making it a welcoming and safe environment in which to shop, eat and drink.

 

Next month sees us once again deep-cleaning streets in the levy area, ensuring Harrogate town centre will look at its best when businesses reopen from the third national COVID-19 lockdown.

During the course of 2021, we will aim to deliver the following initiatives:
 

Your contribution to the 2021 funding is essential to ensure that these plans are delivered.

Business organisations issue initial response to Harrogate Station Gateway project
 

In a joint statement responding to £7.9m secured for the Harrogate Gateway Project, Sandra Doherty, Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce CEO, Robert Ogden Independent Harrogate Co-founder, and Sara Ferguson, Harrogate BID Chair, said: “The challenge we are facing is how do we achieve a net-zero carbon town centre economy and simultaneously create a trading environment in which todays’ businesses can thrive?
 
“The Harrogate Gateway project gives us the opportunity to start the job of achieving this. Whilst we welcome measures to reduce traffic congestion on Station Parade, we feel East Parade would be best placed for the new cycle lanes.
 
“Harrogate District Cycle Action has already identified it as ‘quite an important town centre link between Victoria Avenue to the west, Stray Rein to the south, and Asda and northern destinations’.
 
“Considering that the Bicycling Touring Club was founded in Harrogate in 1878 and the town’s cycling credentials were further boosted by holding the Tour de France Grand Depart in 2014 and in 2019 the UCI World Cycling Championships, the town has somewhat lagged behind others in terms of cycling infrastructure.
 
“We also believe that money would be better spent enhancing Cambridge Street, as this is very much the ‘gateway’ into Harrogate town centre from both the bus and railway stations.
 
“Also, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that previous studies have revealed that between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of visitors to Harrogate arrive here by car.
 
“If this project is about making Harrogate accessible to more sustainable forms of transport, we particularly need to encourage visitors with electric and hybrid vehicles. Installation of on-street charging points goes without saying as does enhanced signage directing visitors to the town centre carparks.
 
“Finally, we ask North Yorkshire County Council for sight of any integrated-transport masterplan for Harrogate, and that Harrogate Borough Council shares any update of the 2016 town-centre masterplan.
 
“That way we will be able to understand how the Harrogate Station Gateway project dove tails with the recently introduced Beech Grove low traffic neighbourhood, the proposed Otley Road, Oatlands Drive, Victoria Avenue and Knaresborough Road cycle corridors.”