Harrogate 20mph Plans Proceed at Snail’s Pace
North Yorkshire Council (NYC) are progressing plans for new 20mph limits in Harrogate at a snail’s pace.
An Active Travel Updates report in advance of the Harrogate & Knaresborough Area Committee meeting on 24th September 2026 says that designs for those streets that require traffic-calming were completed in August.
That should include Oatlands Drive, Arthur’s Avenue, a section of Cold Bath Road, and Beech Grove.
‘Consultations will have started by the end of September/early October and will be undertaken on a phased approach’.
Delivering the schemes on the ground has now been put off.
‘Subject to consultation outcomes, construction is expected to start before the end of the financial year, thought most works will be programmed for Q1 27/28’.
The end of the financial year is 31st March 2027, but the NYC timetable always slips.
A number of other projects are covered in the Active Travel Updates report, as follows.
Bilton Lane Crossing
The scheme to provide a priority crossing of Bilton Lane for the Nidderdale Greenway has been going round and round in circles for years.
The latest fiasco is that NYC officers failed to realise that planning permission would be needed for their scheme. They have found a work-around, which involves dedicating extra land has highways, but this requires a legal process.
They will then need to consult on the scheme and the Traffic Regulation Orders (not for the first time). They have had to extend the deadline to spend the funds to towards the end of 2027.
Fulwith Mill/Oatlands Bridleway
This is a scheme to resurface the bridleways between Fulwith Mill Lane and Oatlands Junior School and Hornbeam Park Avenue.
The surfacing chosen is Flexi-Pave and Flexi-Stone.
It has been split up into two phases, August and September 2026. It is not clear from the report if the work has now been completed.
Sainsbury’s Junction of Wetherby Road
NYC say they are going to consult in October and carry out the works in early 2027.
There are unresolved Critical Safety Issues in the NYC plans.
Otley Road and Pannal Ash Road
There is a separate note about NYC’s disappointing Otley Road and Pannal Ash Road schemes.
Harrogate Cycle Action supports the principle of cycle facilities on these routes, but has concerns about the shared use design on Otley Road, and NYC’s point-blank refusal to join up the schemes to other routes.
Bilton to Hornbeam Park Cycle Route
H&K AC Councillors are to be briefed on plans on 8th October 2026, before wider engagement with stakeholders.
A59 Missing Link
A Stage 1 Road Safety Audit has been completed on plans to provide the missing link in the cycle path by the A59 near High Bridge. The next step is ‘stakeholder and wider public engagement’.
Active Travel Team
The long-promised Active Travel Team is now never going to materialise, it appears from para 13 of the report.
It talks about:
‘a more integrated approach to Active Travel, strengthening our capacity to develop and deliver policy, strategy and behaviour change initiatives, while also enhancing our ability to plan and implement schemes on the ground’.
It sounds very much like no change to the failed status quo.