Why new Harrogate Town Plan Forum may turn out to be vital for protecting the town's interests

Made up of an expanding group of individuals, businesses and voluntary organisations who want to work together to “protect and enhance the great things about the town”, the forum is concerned over the planning void left by the demise of Harrogate Borough Council and the lack of a local body, currently, to represent the town.

Led by Harrogate Civic Society and Zero Carbon Harrogate, the new group is working towards a shared vision for the town via the creation of a statutory Neighbourhood Plan which could guide a proposed new Harrogate Town Council.

Its efforts have been inspired, in particular, by concern over the future of the town's heritage assets - which still play a major role in its visitor economy - under new unitary authority North Yorkshire Council which was established last year when the county's district councils were abolished, including Harrogate's.

In the first edition of the new Harrogate Town Plan Forum Newsletter, Harrogate Civic Society member Paul Hatherley writes: "Harrogate has The Pump Room Museum and Mercer Art Gallery but they both struggle to achieve financial support.

"They appear safe for now but where is the long term plan and commitment to keep them going as premier cultural and tourism centres for the town?

"The monetary value (i.e. rental and sale valuation) of the town’s heritage assets are often placed above their historical, social and cultural value.

"The Improvement Commissioners set up in 1841 to support and develop Harrogate as a premier spa town did not envisage a future where those assets would be sold off to finance wider objectives for the county of North Yorkshire or used for purposes that have nothing to do with their spa heritage."

It was announced at a meeting of the Harrogate Town Plan Forum held this week at West Park United Reform Church on Victoria Avenue that an application to become a qualifying body to produce a statutory Neighbourhood Plan has now been submitted to North Yorkshire Council for approval.

The void the forum is attempting to fill is the result of the Local Plan produced by the now defunct Harrogate Borough Council about to be superceded by North Yorkshire Council's decision to start work on a new county-wide North Yorkshire Local Plan which will come into force from 2028.

The next months and years will see the Harrogate Town Plan Forum working closely with a wide spectrum of community groups in the town to come up with a realisable shared vision for the development and growth of Harrogate.

Should all that succeed, Harrogate will have its own Neighbourhood Plan with some teeth.

It's a situation which Harrogate Town Plan Forum sees as being a positive step forward for Harrogate’s interests.

In the Harrogate Town Plan Forum Newsletter, Stuart Holland, a member of Harrogate Civic Society, writes: "This is not the first time town folk have set out to shape the future of Harrogate. Ever since William Slingsby discovered our mineral waters in 1571, the town has grown to embrace our spa heritage.

"We have an exciting opportunity to steer our town for the foreseeable future by creating realisable visions and by involving the whole community in shaping our future. "

Issues to be discussed during that lengthy process in a Neighbourhood Plan system first introduced by the Government a decade ago include: housing, economic development and tourism, retail and town centres, built environment, natural environment, design, recreation and open space, transportation, community facilities and infrastructure, climate change and flooding, waste.

However all that turns out, members of the forum remain concerned that, if Harrogate doesn't have in place robust and locally relevant planning policy which allows development to proceed but at the same time protects the town's heritage assets from degradation or destruction, it will soon lose its unique status.

Ultimately, if nothing is done, Harrogate Town Plan Forum fears that it will be impossible to differentiate Harrogate from any other town in the UK in the not too distant future.