Council to hold talks with town residents on sustainable travel

OFFICERS at North Yorkshire Council will meet with Harrogate residents next month to discuss how £565,000 can be spent on sustainable travel around Otley Road.

The former county council allocated £4.6m to deliver a sustainable transport package in the area but the results so far have disheartened both residents and cyclists.

Most of the money has been spent on the widening of the Harlow Moor Road junction for cars, smart traffic lights and the roundly-criticised cycle path.

Rene Dziabas, chair of Harlow & Pannal Ash Residents Association, told a meeting of the group's members last week that it will be putting forward ideas on what the remaining £565,000 could be spent on.

He said local people needed to have a say.

Mr Dziabas said: “I have convinced the council to hold a workshop on ideas for what we think are sensible things to put on Otley Road.

“That will be held on second half of May. Local residents have a right to have an input on this.”

Otley Road has faced years of stop-start roadworks and residents have also been scarred by the experience of the cycle path, which was so unpopular that the council were forced to abandon its second phase earlier this year.

One resident asked Mr Dziabas what improvements can realistically be made with the £565,000 but he said it could be the start of a long-term plan to reduce congestion on Otley Road and get people out of their cars.

He said: “The £565,000 won’t give you much but what we need is a sustainability plan.

“It might cost X million and take five years but we need a proper plan in place that convinces people that you will deliver sustainability. “This bit could be the start of it.” Mr Dziabas added that he has been encouraged the approach taken by North Yorkshire Council who he said “appear more willing to listen”.

He said: “We’re having meetings but it’s a double-edged sword. We’ve complained for a long time that they’re not talking to us, now they are talking to us they can say [afterwards] oh, we have talked to you.

“But if you don’t talk you can't influence.”

It is expected that proposals for Otley Road will be put before councillors on the Harrogate and Knaresborough area consituency committee in July.