Letter: Borough Council - Suspicions aroused

It must be an especially large conference for both the Victoria and Jubilee car parks to be reserved solely for delegates and yet the conference is to be kept a secret. A secret conference of “major corporate clients bringing thousands of people to the district” and due to “client confidentiality” the people of Harrogate to be kept in the dark? Preposterous!

But, more to the point - is this an indication of what might happen should HBC achieve their goal and stage large events on the Stray? Will corporate clients’ wishes for confidentiality override HBC duty to serve the people in an open fashion?

Will the people of Harrogate witness infrastructure being assembled on West Park Stray and not be allowed to know what it is? And, if the town cannot accommodate the traffic to this secret conference on Tuesday at the HIC without allocating public car parks, then how will they accommodate parking at these large events that will take up 20 hectares of Stray and last for days? Or will cars park on the Stray?

Will car parks be closed to the public on an ad-hoc basis whenever a large event takes place? Where will commuters park?

In fact. rather than putting the council in a positive light, this news just arouses suspicion.

Christine Parker

Harrogate