Why Harrogate’s green lobby is delusional over buses – Yorkshire Post Letters

IT is laudable that Harrogate is going green. But, and it is big but, how does it work in practice?

In the last two to three years there have been so many houses built in Harrogate and Knaresborough, each with the possibility of two cars per household, the majority with young families. Where is the infrastructure, schools and health centres?

Are there plenty of buses to service the new communities? How can you expect to do the weekly shop on a bicycle?

I live on the 24 bus route and the timetable has been altered so that it is no longer fit for purpose. And therefore local people are using their cars and shunning the bus.

My husband is disabled. Will there be enough blue badge parking slots when Harrogate goes “car free”?

I applaud all the cyclists, but will they come to work in Harrogate on their cycles in cold and wet weather? No, they will be in their cars.

It is hoped the Greenway extension will use the old Harrogate-to-Pateley Bridge railway line, but a lot of the old track has now either been built on or is in private ownership.

I do not think the green lobby live in the same world as I do.

From: R Welch, Harrogate.

I APPRECIATE that it is Government money which has driven this desire to encourage cyclists and pedestrians into Harrogate town centre.

But the time is long overdue for cyclists to be more considerate towards the humble pedestrian. Many residents are elderly with hearing no longer 100 per cent and are frequently unaware of a cyclist bearing down on them from behind. Why do most bicycles no longer have a bell fitted?

And when will Harrogate Council ban cycling and motorised scooters from using the footpaths across The Stray?

Many cyclists coming into Beech Grove from Otley Road, upon reaching the Lancaster Road junction, immediately access the town centre via one of the diagonal footpaths much used by local residents.

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