LETTERS: Gateway scheme will be the death knell for Harrogate

I am not surprised Coun Don Mackenzie has been lobbied ‘quite strongly’ (as stated in your issue dated Thursday, May 27) by the business community, who think the Gateway scheme will make life more difficult for them.

So it will. It will be the death knell of Harrogate If the councillor concurs the scheme is controversial and ‘understands people’s feelings’ - then why continue?

Is he not there to listen to the people he represents? The plan pictured on the front page shows the destruction of the garden by the Victoria Statue, one car on Station Parade - seriously?

And scant people. Yes, that is what will happen - a ghost town. Harrogate is already dying on its feet. Empty shops bring in only essential shoppers who leave as quickly as possible because there is nothing there to attract them.

OPINION: Small charities make huge differences - Karen Weaver, Harrogate and District Community ActionBetter to spend the £7.9m encouraging commerce - easy parking and access to shops - rather than kill it off completely. No amount of money spent on this scheme will bring visitors into the town centre, we need to concentrate on filling the empty properties with individual businesses to attract shoppers.

The scheme is nothing more than a layer of concrete with a few trees scattered about. It will reduce Harrogate to resembling countless other lifeless, mundane, characterless town centres.

Harrogate is known worldwide for its old-fashioned charm, this will disappear completely, as will the atmosphere and ambience. The tourist trade will gradually decline - why come here if it is a carbon copy of their own town? Of 72,000 residents, only 1,101 took part in the poll, and even then, those in favour of pedestrianisation and changes to Station Parade were in the minority. For our true feelings, poll us all before an irreversible madcap plan is rolled out, destroying Harrogate forever.