What’s Going Wrong with Harrogate’s Active Travel Projects?
‘The most common cause of project failure is lack of project time management or in other words non-adherence to project schedule.’ That’s according to Project Management’s Time Management Overview.
Could this be what’s going wrong with Harrogate’s active travel projects?
Otley Road Cycleway
Otley Road Cycleway was funded in November 2017.
North Yorkshire County Council Area 6 are responsible for this project. This is a summary of the history of it:
- November 2017 – funding bid successful
- July 2018 – construction due to start (missed)
- January 2019 – first consultation
- August 2019 – start date (missed)
- October 2019 – start date (missed)
- March 2020 – start date (missed)
- April 2020 – start date (missed)
- July 2020 – start date (missed)
- August 2020 – start date (missed)
- December 2020 – start date (missed)
- January 2021 – Stray land consultation
- July 2021 – start date (missed)
- September 2021 – work started on Phase 1
- December 2021/January 2022 – work on Phase 1 finished
- 2022 – Phase 2 was to follow swiftly on but to date no work has started
- September 2022 – third consultation promised (did not happen)
Project Management website’s Time Management Overview says:
‘The symptoms of projects failing due to scheduling problems are milestones not being met, delivery deadlines extended and finally resulting in a project that slips its schedule. Furthermore, another chief cause of project failure is projects going over budget. This can in turn also be attributed to time management issues. A project that takes longer than scheduled time almost always costs more than budgeted for.’
time management overview, project-management.com
When considering the history of the Otley Road Cycleway, these words ring true.
Is Otley Road an isolated example? No. Area 6’s other active travel projects are also beginning to resemble Otley Road.
Beech Grove
Modal filters were installed on Beech Grove as an 18 month experiment.
The procedure set out in the Network Management Duty guidance is to assess the scheme during the 18 months. Area 6 held a consultation for the first 6 months of the experiment, then they had a year to assess the feedback and produce a report.
Local authorities should make adjustments during the period of the trial, but Area 6 didn’t.
At the end of the experiment there should be an evidence report; there is a presumption that schemes will be retained.
Area 6 did not produce an evidence report. The Beech Grove modal filters were removed. The Executive Member for Transport Keane Duncan said that he had not taken a decision and the trial would be reviewed in detail. This should have been done during the experimental period.
North Yorkshire promised to consult on permanent measures on Beech Grove in September 2022, but did not do so.
As with Otley Road delays are multiplying, and Area 6 is failing active travellers in Harrogate.
ATF2 Projects
In November 2020, North Yorkshire won funding for active travel projects on Oatlands Drive, Victoria Avenue and the A59 Knaresborough Road. The money came from the Active Travel Fund 2 (ATF2).
They should have been completed by 31st March 2022, but they have not even been started.
Harrogate District Cycle Action has set out the history of the projects.
It’s a familiar picture of missed milestones, elastic timeframes, and failure to deliver.
In its recent self-assessment questionnaire, Active Travel England asked for evidence of delivering to time and budget. In my view North Yorkshire has scant evidence of delivering to time and budget.
The Last 8 Years and the Next 8 Years
North Yorkshire have made no significant improvements to Harrogate’s cycle network in the last 8 years, since the Yorkshire Showground Greenway was built in 2014.
They now have a very challenging target, to increase cycling in the York & N Yorkshire region by 900% in the next 8 years – by 2030. At the current rate of progress, they will not achieve that.
We need to see ambition, drive, determination, competence and time management from the county council. There is no sign of it yet.