This is how community groups are trying to shape Harrogate's future in an era of uncertainty
An attempt by Harrogate’s leading business, civic and community groups to ensure the town has more input into its own future in a period of political uncertainty is set to take a step forward.
More than a year after Harrogate Borough Council was scrapped and a new, bigger authority for North Yorkshire launched, the town’s future direction is still up in the air – and what will happen to its historic ‘crown jewels’, including the Royal Hall and the Royal Baths, or new housing developments.
Matters still raising concern in Harrogate include:
1 Delays which have hit the process of creating a new North Yorkshire Local Plan which will set out where development will take place across the county over the next 15 to 20 years.
2 Ongoing plans to create a new Harrogate Town Council which could come to fruition in 2025.
Councillors at North Yorkshire Council have supported the recommendation of the creation of a Town Council and suggested a warding pattern of 19 single councillors using the boundaries of the former Harrogate Borough Council.
But there is no agreement on the scope of a town council’s budget, powers or responsibilities.
3 Disquiet over whether North Yorkshire Council’s planning system, including the area committee of Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors, is operating in the town’s interests.
But community efforts to create a vision for Harrogate that is uniquely its own in the new political landscape are making progress.
Crucially, Harrogate Town Plan Forum is to meet on Tuesday, September 10 at West Park United Reformed Church in Harrogate.
The aim is to create a Neighbourhood Plan agreed by all sides in Harrogate which would then act as a statutory document guiding the new Harrogate Town Council alongside a North Yorkshire Local Plan.
Since the first Neighbourhood Plan meetings took place in 2023, significant progress has been made by the two driving forces behind it – Harrogate Civic Society and Zero Carbon Harrogate.
Both groups are aware of the magnititude of the task and the timescale involved – years, not months.
But both have already consulted with a massive range of local groups to bring the whole town with them since they established a steering group last year.
A decision was taken in June to go ahead and set up a forum to oversee the creation of a Harrogate Neighbourhood Plan.
A spokesperson for Harrogate Civic Society said: “This is a unique time for the town since it is without its own Town Council and under planning legislation, residents and those who work in the town are free to prepare a Neighbourhood plan that, in time, can become adopted and sit alongside the County Plan.
"From our first meetings, we recognised that the statutory process of neighbourhood planning was the ideal vehicle to develop a shared vision for Harrogate.
"When, and if, a Harrogate Town Council is formed, the neighbourhood planning process would fall to the new council to lead.”
Harrogate Town Plan Forum is clear that it is at a transitional stage between the establishment of the original steering group and the designation of the forum by the local planning authority, North Yorkshire Council.
Designation is one of the important legislative requirements because only a designated neighbourhood forum is empowered to lead the neighbourhood planning process.