Council's warning over traffic scheme challenge

Campaigners have launched a legal challenge to stop the Harrogate Gateway Scheme

Harrogate could lose out on millions of pounds of government funding if a traffic-cutting scheme is scrapped, a council has warned.

A campaign group opposed to the Harrogate Gateway Scheme claimed North Yorkshire Council failed to consider the wider impacts of the project and to consult fully with the public, meaning its issuing of traffic regulation orders for the project was illegal.

Campaigners from group Get Away said their solicitors had served legal papers in a bid to stop the £12m scheme.

But North Yorkshire councillor and executive member for highways and transport Keane Duncan said the authority "strongly refuted" the grounds for the legal challenge.

Duncan said conditions set by the government meant the money could not be diverted to services such as policing and the NHS, as he said had been suggested by the campaign group.

He said: "If the scheme is blocked, Harrogate will lose out on this multimillion-pound investment to improve the town.

"The funds would need to be returned to government and spent elsewhere."

The council says the plans had been the subject of extensive consultation

Speaking about the legal challenge, Steven Baines, Harrogate business owner and spokesperson for the Get Away campaign, said: "Not only is there anger from the Harrogate business and trade community that this is the wrong scheme for the town but there is outrage at the way it was pushed through without adequate consultation."

He said campaigners wanted the "whole matter to be out in the open and heard by the High Court so we can get to the bottom of what has gone on here".

But Duncan said the plans had been subjected to "extensive consultation".

He said the council had received thousands of responses from the public across three rounds of consultation.

The council had "reflected on this feedback, amending the scheme to remove the most controversial elements," he said.

As a result there would 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," Duncan said.

North Yorkshire Council was awarded more than £38m in funding from the Transforming Cities Fund programme for projects in Harrogate, Skipton and Selby town centres.

Councillors have given authority for officers to enter into construction contracts and accept grants for the Selby and Skipton schemes, with work due to start within weeks.

But the legal action had prevented council chiefs from giving the Harrogate scheme the green light.

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