Plan for Tour de France garden

Councillors in Harrogate are being asked to agree to spend £13,500 on a series of sculptures for the garden to celebrate the sporting spectacle.

It is then proposed that the works of art would be permanently displayed in Knaresborough.

Members of Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet member for cultural services will be asked to back plans to commission a design, featuring three sculptured bicycles, when they met next week.

A report prepared for committee members says: “Yorkshire’s Grand Départ, as part of the Tour de France, taking place within the Harrogate district provides an opportunity to provide displays that will suitably mark the occasion, capture the imagination and provides a wow factor that will engage and attract visitors.”

The first stage of the Grand Depart will start in Leeds and end in Harrogate on July 5.

Stage two, on 6 July, travels from York to Sheffield through the Harrogate district.

If councillors approve the funding it would come from a pot of cash set aside to mark the Tour de France.

The Harrogate Spring Flower Show opens on April 24 and the council’s parks section will be displaying a cycling and Tour de France themed garden.

Following the flower show council bosses are proposing that the sculptures go on permanent display at World’s End Garden in Knaresborough.

Harrogate councillors will decide whether to go ahead with the proposal when they meet on Tuesday.