Harlow and Pannal Ash Residents Association (Hapara) has called on North Yorkshire Council to scrap £1.8m proposals to extend the troubled Otley Road cycle path and spend the money on improving buses in the area instead.
The first stretch of the cycle path was completed in 2022 but was widely criticised for its design. It’s led many cyclists to ignore it and use the road with other vehicles.
The second phase, which would have connected it to Beech Grove on the edge of the Stray, was then scrapped by the Conservative-run executive following the negative feedback.
However, a third phase, which would extend the route up towards Cardale Park is still on the table.
The council hopes it will encourage residents living on the new housing estates proposed around Otley Road to leave their cars at home to ease congestion in town.
Harrogate District Cycle Action says phase 3 is “vital” to provide a new sustainable transport link to these new developments, which includes more than 800 homes at Windmill Farm next to RHS Harlow Carr and 480 homes at Bluecoat Wood on the other side of Otley Road.
North Yorkshire Council has now published a long-awaited infrastructure delivery document that aims to answer how the west of Harrogate will cope with thousands of new homes over the next decade and more.
The document has costed different infrastructure programmes including the extended cycle route which it says could cost £1.8m.
But Hapara, which has represented residents around Harlow Hill and Rossett Green for more than 30 years, believes the money would be more beneficial if spent on buses instead.
The infrastructure document lists improving buses as one of the council’s key priorities, alongside the cycle path.
Writing in its objection to 224 homes on Whinney Lane, which will be decided by councillors next week, a Hapara spokesperson said:
“It is interesting to note that a budget in excess of £1.8m has been allocated to Phase 3 of the Otley Road Cycle path, whilst a sum of £1.5m is shown to enable pump priming of extended bus services.
“Given that there seems to be universal agreement that a good public transport proposition will help to take traffic off of the road, then we would have expected a more generous allocation towards buses.
“Certainly, more generous than that being applied to a cycle lane. What is being proposed for Phase 3 is a two-way shared cyclist/pedestrian facility, which is hardly going to offset the additional traffic expected to result from the major sites along the Otley Road.
"Surely it would make more sense to cancel phase 3 and reallocate the monies to further pump prime truly enhanced bus services.
“Instead, what is being proposed is an extended bus service, that will take in the new sites when they have been built on. So, it seems that overall the bus services will actually take longer. The outcome of this will be people carrying on using their cars.”
The local councillor for the area Michael Schofield told the Local Democracy Reporting Service yesterday that he would like to see Labour mayor David Skaith support the council with additional funding for transport schemes.
Cllr Schofield said:
“In an ideal world there would be adequate funding for both the cycle path and improved bus routes.
“I would like to see the new mayor of North Yorkshire look into investing money in bus services especially where major housing developments are to take place such as here.
“Both schemes need looking into as it is vitally important that the bus services service the communities adequately whilst helping us reduce car travel and cycling infrastructure is invested in to aid cleaner and healthier living whilst also helping us reduce car usage.”
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