Local Councillors Agree to Fund Design of Two Cycle Routes

Local Councillors agreed to fund the design of two cycle routes on Thursday.

At a meeting of the Harrogate & Knaresborough Area Constituency Committee (ACC) on 30th May 2024, three priority schemes were put forward to benefit from the ACC Seed Funding Pot. Two of them were designs of cycle routes.

The details were set out by Harrogate Cycle Action in advance of the meeting.

One is the missing link between High Bridge Knaresborough and the start of a cycle path around 250m further up the A59, and the other is a route from Bilton to Hornbeam Park.

Knaresborough Missing Link

There is already a cycle path by the A59 Knaresborough Road.

It goes most of the way from Knaresborough to Harrogate Golf Club near Forest Lane Head, but there is a 250m missing section just above High Bridge.

The proposal approved by Councillors on Thursday was to spend £10,000 on a design for the missing link. Construction would cost a further £300,000 and needs to be funded separately.

The project is regarded as a relatively low-cost opportunity for a quick win. The design will take Align Property Services one month to do.

Just 16 additional cycle trips a day are needed to make it good Value for Money.

Bilton to Hornbeam Park

The route from Bilton to Hornbeam Park was identified as a priority in Harrogate & Knaresborough’s Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) in 2019, but never progressed.

The route would be:

• Bilton Lane (20mph and visual narrowing)
• Skipton Road (stepped cycle tracks)
• new cycle bridge over the railway
• stepped one-way cycle track on Dragon Road
• for cycle travel the other way, Dragon Avenue would be a cycle street
• roundabout junction with Bower Road cycle-proofed
• stepped cycle tracks either side of East Parade
• Odeon roundabout cycle-proofed
• compact roundabout at the junction of Marlborough Road and Victoria Avenue
• South Park Road
• Stray Rein/St James’s Drive
• Warwick Crescent
• Hamilton Avenue
• Rayleigh Road
• Hornbeam Park

The Benefit-Cost Ratio of the Bilton to Hornbeam Park route is 8.49.

It could:

• generate 1,162 extra cycle trips a day
• save 203,000 car km a year and
• save 17.7 tCO2e a year

The design would take until March 2025, at which point it would be bid-ready. Currently it is only at feasibility/concept stage.

Potential sources of funding for both schemes include:

• the Active Travel Fund (DfT) and
• the Local Transport Fund (Mayoral Combined Authority)