As part of the second tranche of the Government’s Active Travel Fund, the county council received £200,000 to engage with residents and businesses in locations across the county, including the area between Oatlands Drive and Skipton Road, often referred to as The Saints.
The original funding had to be spent by March 2022. The public voiced strong objection to the public consultation and as there was limited time to investigate the options, NYCC were unable to resolve issues that arose and deliver the scheme within the required government timeframe.
Therefore, it was decided to remove the scheme from the programme and investigate further. NYCC agreed with the government to use this funding to explore the issues around Oatlands, including undertaking additional public engagement.
Cllr Keane Duncan, Executive Member for Highways and Transportation, said:
We are looking at options for active travel and traffic calming improvements in the Oatlands area as part of our commitment to encouraging cycling and walking, easing congestion and improving air quality in Harrogate.
To support this, we are undertaking a traffic survey, which is nearing completion, in the Oatlands Drive area.
survey is looking at levels of parking across the area related to use of the Stray, residential parking, hospital parking and other uses.
It will also capture the volume and speed of traffic and the type of vehicles in use.
The findings will inform public engagement about potential measures.
We are committed to ensuring local people are involved in the design process from the outset.
Public engagement is being finalised and is likely to start shortly and to run for several weeks.
Proposals based on the findings are likely to be published in autumn.
All you will achieve is intensification of traffic on surrounding roads.
It’s a short sight attempt to change the way people live. It doesn’t consider the facts that people do school drops offs and go onto work. Nor does it consider having children at different schools.
I hope that they really do communicate with the peopl who live in the area. Any changes they decide to implement will really impact on local residents. Please don’t make changes just because you have funding for it.