Harrogate cycling campaigners are still fighting for 'proper' cycleways 20 years later

It's a long time since Harrogate District Cycle Action (HDCA) was first launched in 2003 as the Harrogate Cycle Group (HCG) after a request from Harrogate Borough Council for local cyclists to help plan a comprehensive cycle network.

But the wheels of local government turn slowly and, to date, those early aspirations have rarely been transformed into action on the ground.

It’s also now a long time since the then North Yorkshire County Council set out more than five years ago to transform a town hitherto dominated by cars and lacking any real segregated cycle paths.

But, despite the best efforts of members of HDCA , 2025 saw only a few small, if heartening, steps on that road with the bigger picture looking as negative as at any time since 2003.

In August, the Getaway group, led by worried local businessmen, lost their legal challenge to halt any progress on the £12 million Harrogate Station Gateway scheme.

But, even should the long-delayed project finally become a reality, its original aim of contributing to a measurable shift to active travel and reduced dependency on cars in the Station Parade area has already been heavily diluted under pressure from traders worried about the impact on business.

In the absence of much to crow about at the macro level, 2025 did see some changes at the micro level in places, some of them of a positive nature for anyone in favour of a greater priority for walking and cycling in Harrogate.

1 Wetherby Road

In November, HDCA members of celebrated the introduction of a new crossing of Wetherby Road which enables pedestrians, runners and cyclists using Slingsby Walk to cross this busy road from the Stray safely.

2 Victoria Avenue

Although the then North Yorkshire County Council won funding for a full segregated cycleway on Victoria Avenue in 2020, they have since failed to make any progress.

Having commissioned consultants to look at a central cycleway, the idea was rejected.

The current North Yorkshire Council has, instead, implemented minor pedestrian improvements on Victoria Avenue with some added cycle signals, giving people on bikes a four seconds head start on general vehicle traffic

3 Sainsbury's junction

HDCA has been pushing North Yorkshire Council to add cycle crossing facilities when it revamps the Sainsbury's junction of the A661 Wetherby Road.

Following that pressure, the council revealed that “we have undertaken a Design Surgery with Active Travel England to talk through the proposed design and potential options for a cycle element.

But any excitement at this news was tempered by the council’s admission that delivery of such as would likely require additional capital funding above and beyond the present allocation of Active Travel funding from the Government

The first 18 months of the tenure of York and North Yorkshire’s Mayor David Skaith, who hails from Harrogate, has seen the Labour figure launch a £4 million Active Travel Fund for the county.

It’s a small piece of welcome news for Harrogate's cycling long-suffering campaigners as we enter a new year which may or may not finally deliver on the promises of 2003.