The North Yorkshire County Council’s executive were asked on Tuesday 24 July to rescind part of an approved route for a Harrogate outer relief road to clear the way for housing development.
This takes the yellow route off the table, selling off the land and building more homes that will generate further traffic. This would leave only the green / blue routes through the Nidd Gorge area as the solution to East / West (Liverpool to Hull) corridor. In the likelihood that the NYCC Executive and WSP agenda is to conclude that a road is necessary and sustainable transport could not solve local congestion – this would mean a bypass road through NIDD GORGE and the green belt between Knaresborough and Harrogate.
A planning application for housing development on Boroughbridge Road, Knaresborough, has now been submitted and is being considered by Harrogate Borough Council. The line of the outer relief road (yellow) route runs through the development plot, which is among sites proposed for potential residential development in the Borough Council’s latest consultation document for the emerging Harrogate district local plan. Therefore, the route conflicts with this application and with proposed housing allocations in the draft local plan.
The hidden agenda of the East/West connectivity means the route was removed by the (unelected) NYCC Executive and Cllrs Mackenzie and Harrison as an option being investigated as part of the ‘Harrogate congestion study’. How are they doing this? – their initial assessments already made as part of that study indicated that any outer relief road would have a negligible impact on congestion in Harrogate and would not be a favoured approach to addressing the problem.
The elected Harrogate Borough Councillors need to stop NYCC from hiding the Liverpool/Hull route using the local ‘Harrogate congestion study’ to drive the route through Nidd Gorge.
Before the meeting, County councillor DON MACKENZIE, executive member for highways, said: “In this recommendation to our executive, we are taking a realistic view. Evidence shows that this relief road alignment is no longer considered fit for purpose. Therefore, we do not see a benefit in retaining this alignment and, in so doing, putting an impediment in the way of development in Knaresborough.
“Should the route be rescinded, the county council, as local highway authority, will be in a position to give a positive recommendation in response to the planning application for housing development in Boroughbridge Road.”
Articles from Stray FM, the Harrogate Advertiser and North Yorkshire Country Council have been posted on ‘Keeping Nidd Gorge Gorgeous’ facebook page.
Anne Procter
