Interview: No regrets from Harrogate council leader as he prepares to step down in council's final days

In a frank interview where he looks back at his 24 years of public service, Coun Cooper said he had never felt being leader was a high-profile job and the only thing which made him doubt the role was personal abuse from ‘keyboard warriors’.

"It may seem like a very high-profile role but I don’t think anything has happened during my time as leader, even the achievements, just because of me,” said the council leader in a calm but hard-headed way.

"I’m not in charge of Harrogate Borough Council, it’s run by the chief executive and officers and the ruling party.

"People might have thought I could just sit in my ivory tower and order houses built there and bins to be collected that day but that it not what it is.

"You have to work with other people and win approval for everything.

"The general public wouldn’t recognise me in the street, which is the way it should be.

"But I haven’t liked being attacked on social media.

"I haven’t enjoyed social media at all. There’s a lot of keyboard warriors out there.

"I had to come off Twitter and limit my use of Facebook.

"When I started as a councillor in 1998, people had just about started using emails.

"To have people say horrible things about you who you have never met – and telling everyone else - is upsetting."

Next week will be Coun Cooper’s last as Tory leader of Harrogate Borough Council, a body about to be abolished to make way for a new more powerful North Yorkshire Council.

Among the biggest issues which have seen Coun Cooper squarely in the firing line in the digital battlefield are Harrogate’s hosting of the UCI world road cycling championships in 2019 and the £13 million move of the council’s headquarters from Crescent Gardens in 2017 to its new home at Knapping Mount.

Both decisions had their critics, in the case of the nine wet days the international cycling circus came to town, a lot of them.

Coun Cooper sticks with both these controversial calls to this day.

"Welcoming this major international cycling event and the world’s media to Harrogate wasn’t the wrong decision.

"In terms of tourism for the Harrogate district, it got the area on TV across Europe.

"If it had been glorious sunshine for nine days, the streets would have been full of people and everyone would have been happy.

"But we had the worst rain in September for 60 years which also damaged the Stray, though we got it back to its best as soon as possible, no matter what the complaints were.

"The other reason footfall was bad for businesses during the event was everyone telling people in advance it would be impossible to go into town.

"As for the new Harrogate Civic Centre, we took the decision to move from the old headquarters back in 2014 because I thought the majority of people wouldn’t really have a view on it.

"It it was a choice between cutting council costs and cutting services, I thought people would understand.

"Nostalgia doesn’t pay the bills.”

Coun Cooper, who first moved from Huddersfield to Harrogate in 1995, has not had the luxury of extravagant financial times.

A decade of austerity imposed by his party’s government left Harrogate council, like many others, with difficult choices to make.

It’s the handling of those choices which he sees as among the main achievements during his tenure.

"Despite Harrogate Borough Council losing 69% of our budget since 2010, there have been no cuts to frontline services.

"Moving all our offices into the new civic centre wasn’t always popular but it meant we didn’t need to close a swimming pool or put up council tax.

“The council has also done a lot to support the homeless and turn their lives around in partnership with Harrogate Homeless Project, the police and other local bodies.

"Our housing team have really pushed the boat out to help people.

"We were one of the top performing councils in the country to get government cash to local businesses during lockdown when they needed support.

"There’s a feeling sometimes that the private sector is best and the public sector is bad but I don’t think that is the case.

"I’m going to miss the staff at the council.

"I’ve never met a more professional group of people working to get the best for the area.

"I hope all of them get roles when the new council takes over.”

If there is one thing Coun Cooper said he has learned from all his years at Harrogate Borough Council, perhaps in the light of recent setbacks on issues such as the £11 million Harrogate Gateway project, it’s that it isn’t enough to win the battle once.

"I wish I had banged on more about the importance of sustainable transport than I did.

"You never win the argument. You have to make the point again and again and again.

"I don’t regret Harrogate’s Local Plan for housing but I do regret not making the case for more housing which this country absolutely needs.”

As someone who chose to make Harrogate his home, the soon-to-depart council leader is still smitten with its wonders.

And that isn’t just the Stray and the fine old buildings, it’s the people.

"There are so many amazing people in Harrogate making the town what it is.

"From the late Malcolm Neesam, to Sharon Canavar, Karen Weaver, Simon Cotton, and I could mention so many others.

"You simply don’t get that in every town.”

Although worried at the prospect of life less busy as he prepares to step down, though he will continue to work in the office of the town’s MP Andrew Jones, the soon to be non-councillor Mr Cooper will be keeping a watchful eye on the progress of new North Yorkshire Council which will take over the running of all services from April 1 – albeit from a distance.

A firm supporter of the theory of the current local government reorganisation, Coun Cooper believes Harrogate’s future is bright even if he is concerned about how the changes will work out in practice.

"I was born an optimist but you always have to fight your corner for funding, more so when money is tight.

"I’m absolutely certain the Harrogate district will continue to be successful in future.

"But those people responsible for representing Harrogate will have to keep on evangelising for Harrogate.”