Difficult issues around market town’s bid for devolution

From: Michael Ellison, Knapping Hill, Harrogate.

MARTIN Malone (The Yorkshire Post, March 14) proposed that Harrogate should be given its own devolved powers as an unitary authority because of a decision made at Westminster to exclude the town from West Yorkshire regional devolution.

Martin referred to historic commercial and cultural ties with West Yorkshire. Historically this is due to the fact that prior to 1974 (when the traditional Yorkshire Ridings were changed to form the current separate Yorkshire Counties) Harrogate was part of the West Riding.

I recall, at that time, there was much debate regarding whether Harrogate should have been placed in North or West Yorkshire.

On 25 April, 1900, a distant, uncle of mine wrote in his diary: “The Hotel Majestic is building at Harrogate and is to be opened on June 1st, it is the largest & noblest hotel in Harrogate truly Harrogate has grown and developed wonderfully this last decade.

“Trade is a wonderful thing for making money and the smoky towns of the West Riding make wealthy men who come & build fine houses at such places as Harrogate.”

Whilst employees lived in terraced houses near their place of work owners were happy to live in Harrogate and commute every day. Little as changed as many residents of Harrogate commute daily to Leeds and beyond.

A boundary line on a map may indicate there is a gap, but in reality Harrogate has more connections to West Yorkshire than the rest of North Yorkshire.

From: Peter Horton, Sandy Lane, Ripon.

MARTIN Malone writes of Harrogate’s cultural and commercial ties with West Yorkshire through its membership of Leeds City Region, and complains about Westminster’s decision to exclude it from West Yorkshire devolution.

Whilst it may appear acceptable for Harrogate town to be part of the West Yorkshire unit, it is not at all acceptable for the whole Harrogate Borough Council territory to fall into West Yorkshire.

This is because it includes vast country areas to the north of Harrogate.

These include the City of Ripon, and Masham and Boroughbridge – all an intrinsic part of the rural county of North Yorkshire and with absolutely no affinity with Leeds, a city which is some 40 miles distant from the northern edge of the borough.