Letter: Town Centre - Projects I’d like to see this year

Harrogate Town Centre. Picture Gerard Binks

There are three obvious projects that would bring our lovely town back to where it belongs and convince residents and visitors alike that our MP and council teams are up to the job... right now no-one is convinced of this.

1. Fill the empty retail units with pop-up interesting business at much reduced rates and rents to give small business owners the opportunity to see if they can make a success of their ideas.

Arts and independent shops (no more charity shops, we have plenty currently).

This would be much more productive than allowing shops to sit empty, dragging the town down and taking the people with it.

2. Get work started on the recovery of West Park Stray as soon as possible. This is a constant open wound with the residents of the town.

Demonstrate that you mean business to get this up and running. Involve volunteers from the town to help if necessary.

That would be a great piece of PR for the council, residents and town.

3. Get the homeless off the streets in the town. This has been going on too long now.

We keep hearing of those “Homeless Projects” but we are not seeing anything happening. The public need to see more action on this.

If our current MP and council teams cannot reach a goal of the above three basic needs required to sustain the aesthetics of a spa town like Harrogate then perhaps those teams need to change.

They are clearly are not up to the job, or the current system is not allowing them to do their job. Either way a change is needed asap.

Audrey Lavelle

Harrogate