Cycling Stripped Out of West Harrogate Sustainable Transport Package
All meaningful cycling elements have been stripped out of the West Harrogate sustainable transport package by North Yorkshire Council (NYC).
That emerges from a report in the Harrogate Advertiser about revised proposals, presumably based on an NYC press release. It is confirmed by the reports pack for an ACC council meeting which will take place on 14th September 2023.
Background
Since 2015, the council’s cycling strategy was to build Harrogate Cycleway 1, a high-quality segregated route between Knaresborough and Cardale Park.
Funding was received in 2017 for part of Harrogate Cycleway 1 from the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF). North Yorkshire’s NPIF bid was for funding to widen junctions for motor vehicles, and to build the Otley Road Cycleway.
They widened the junctions for motor vehicles but failed to build the cycleway.
A small part of Otley Road Cycleway was built in 2021, then the rest was abandoned in 2023 despite majority support for it to go ahead.
Executive Member for Transport Keane Duncan calls the cycleway ‘unpopular’ in his press release. Given that there was majority support for it, this amounts to misleading propaganda.
Unfortunately North Yorkshire Council is not prepared to stand up to any opposition. Since there will always be some opposition to any meaningful cycle project – from the usual suspects such as the Stray Defence Association and Harrogate Chamber of Commerce – there is not much hope that a sensible cycling strategy will ever be delivered by the council.
NPIF Money
The funding in 2017 was just over £4.2 million. Around £565,000 (or £585,000) is left over.
The recent announcement concerns NYC’s intentions for the remaining money.
Elements of the Revised Package
The reports pack for the council meeting contains the measures NYC proposes to take forward in Table 1.
1) 20mph Zone
A new 20mph zone is to be created, as requested by Pannal Ash Safe Streets Zone and Oatlands Road Safety and Active Travel Campaign.
The NPIF money will not pay for all of it – for example, the area around Green Lane and Yew Tree Lane is excluded from current proposals, see Table 2 below. Pannal Ash Road is to come from a different budget.
All the credit for the new 20mph zone should go to the campaigners. The council has been forced into announcing it by effective campaigning involving school and head teachers.
Residential streets should be 20mph and the council should be doing this anyway, without taking the funding away from its cycling strategy.
There will be some incidental benefit to cycling from the 20mph zone, but it will not make cycling to school safe on its own. This is what the updated Network Management Duty says:
‘reducing speed limits: 20mph speed limits are being more widely adopted as an appropriate speed limit for residential roads and many through streets in built-up areas. 20mph limits alone will not be sufficient to meet the needs of active travel, but in association with other measures, reducing the speed limit can provide a more attractive and safer environment for walking and cycling’
updated network management duty to support active travel
20mph does not amount to an intelligent and well-thought-out cycle strategy.
20mph is useful in combination with other measures such as modal filters, and dedicated, physically-protected cycle tracks on busier streets. Harrogate Cycle Action have put together plans for a coherent network for the town, but NYC has no interest in a coherent cycle network.
2) Replacement Traffic Lights at the Cold Bath Road on Otley Road
NYC says it intends to replace the traffic lights at the junction of Cold Bath Road and Otley Road, at a cost of £200,000.
This is the biggest single item of expenditure in the whole package, and it is explained as follows:
‘This will improve traffic movement and congestion between the two signalised junctions to increase capacity’.
Traffic lights in table 1
NYC is billing NPIF as a sustainable transport fund. Motor vehicles are not sustainable transport, and this is therefore a misuse of the money.
3) Tinkering with Bus Stops
The council says it is going to make changes to the bus stops on Otley Road at a cost of £50,000. According to Table 1, this includes removing bus stops.
4) Crossings and Cycle Parking on Cold Bath Road
The Pelican crossing near Sainsbury’s on Cold Bath Road is to have a raised table added to it, which is a good idea. NYC are also suggesting that they will move the cycle stands near the crossing, which is not necessary.
A new uncontrolled crossing is to be put in outside Western Primary. An uncontrolled crossing is not a crossing at all, just a suggestion of where people might cross – but with priority to drivers.
A zebra crossing is required.
NYC say they will put in more cycle parking on Cold Bath Road. Ok, but cycle parking needs to go hand in hand with safe cycle routes, and NYC is not developing any. They are giving us icing but no cake.
5) Cycle Signage
NYC say they want to improve cycle route signage. This was already done comprehensively in 2014, and does not need doing again.
The council lacks the will to build the safe cycle routes that are needed, so it falls back on putting up some new blue cycling signs. Signposting fundamentally unsafe cycle routes is not a worthwhile exercise, it is a token gesture to make the council look as though it is doing something while in fact doing nothing meaningful.
The projected cost is £25,000, presumably paid to consultants. This is a total waste of public money.
6) Crossing of Green Lane at Ashville College
Again, NYC are proposing to ‘improve’ the existing uncontrolled crossing. It’s very hard to see how they can improve it while leaving it as an uncontrolled crossing where motor vehicles have priority.
This needs to be a zebra or parallel crossing.
7) Nursery Lane
The press release says that Nursery Lane ‘will be upgraded to allow cyclists to use as an off-road leisure route’. This is daft on several levels.
NPIF is supposed to be about jobs and growth, and should be providing proper high-quality cycle routes that people can use for going to school or to work. Instead cycling is not being treated as a mode of transport, but as a leisure activity.
Nursery Lane is already fine as it is. There is very little traffic, no through traffic, and a sealed surface. There is absolutely no need for a cycle track. Spending £100,000 on it would be an outrageous waste of public money.
Nursery Lane could be a useful cut-through from an Otley Road Cycleway to Harlow Moor Road – but there would need to be an Otley Road Cycleway. As it is, NYC is intent on building ‘ribs but no spine’ which is brainless.
Elements Excluded from the Revised Package
There are several measures that NYC refuses to take forward with the remaining NPIF money.
8) Beech Grove
It is suggested that a crossing of Otley Road near the junction with Beech Grove should be considered as part of the West Harrogate Urban Expansion.
This amounts to kicking it into the very long grass. At a guess, nothing would happen this decade.
Some tinkering with the Beech Grove/Lancaster Road junction is proposed at some unspecified point in the future. This is a million miles away from what is needed.
9) 20mph around Green Lane and Yew Tree Lane
As mentioned above, NYC are saying they won’t make the area around Green Lane and Yew Tree Lane 20mph with NPIF money.
Next Steps
The package is to be considered by the Area Constituency Committee of NYC on 14th September 2023.
According to the reports in the local paper, NYC aim to implement the measures early in 2024. When you read the reports pack, it is clear that that will not happen.
The reports pack says there will be one report in October or November 2023 to ask for permission to start design work, then another in April 2024 with a costed delivery programme. Only after that will any work start.
We know that NYC timetables always slip, not just a bit but by months and years. There is no chance of anything getting done before 2025 at the earlies.