Papers for a High Court legal challenge to the Harrogate Station Gateway have been served on North Yorkshire Council by a group that have termed themselves “Get Away” with a spokesperson Steven Baine.
However it is not clear what the constitution of the group is.
We have attempted to engage with the group, but they have provided press releases via a PR agency, and so far they have not answered any of our queries.
The group has a Facebook page with 25 followers. See Harrogate Get Away
and a website https://harrogategetaway.com/
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for highways and transport, Cllr Keane Duncan, said:
We have strongly refuted the proposed grounds for challenge to our traffic regulation orders.
The proposed scheme has been subject to extensive consultation over many months, above and beyond what is required.
We gained thousands of responses from the public across the three rounds and reflected on this feedback, amending the scheme to remove the most controversial elements.
As a result, there will now be no reduction in lanes on Station Parade and no pedestrianisation.
The new scheme focusses on key benefits such as high-quality paving, the transformation of One Arch and a short bus lane to improve access to the station.
In addition, we are seeking to coordinate the many traffic signals to help traffic flow better and reduce congestion.
Sadly, old visualisations of the scheme are being shared online, referencing aspects which have already been removed. This is inevitably giving people an inaccurate and unhelpful view of it.
It is important to ensure people understand exactly what the revised scheme now includes, and the key fact that the funding is ring fenced.
Conditions set by central government mean it cannot be diverted to other measures, like policing and healthcare, as has been suggested.
If the scheme is blocked, Harrogate will lose out on this multi-million-pound investment to improve the town. The funds would need to be returned to government and spent elsewhere.
We have made a democratic decision to support this scheme and we remain focussed on working to deliver it for the benefit of our residents and businesses.
