County Council thanks those that have taken part in congestion survey

The thousands of people who responded to a survey about congestion in Harrogate and Knaresborough have been thanked for taking part.

North Yorkshire County Council held the 12-week public engagement to find out whether people considered congestion a problem and, if so, what they thought of a range of potential measures to address it. The survey, which closed on Monday (8 July), received more than 14,000 responses.

County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Access, said:

We appreciate the time and effort taken by those who responded. This is an important issue for Harrogate and Knaresborough, as demonstrated by the impressive response.

This survey has been all about finding out what people think about congestion. Initial results indicate that the vast majority regard congestion as a problem, so then the question is what measures are they happy to consider to tackle it.

Within the survey, the County Council set out a number of options that could include measures to boost walking and cycling, make changes to parking management or create a park and ride scheme, plus other possible measures to try to encourage a shift from travelling by car to travelling by bus, walking or cycling. One option could also be a new relief road.

Council officers will now begin the job of collating and analysing all the responses. This analysis will inform the drafting of a report. Initially, the report will be presented to the County Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Constituency Committee on 29 August, before going to the Skipton and Ripon Area Constituency Committee. The County Council Executive will then take a decision on which options, if any, should be developed further.

The report to the Harrogate and Knaresborough Committee will be published on 23 August and the full anonymised consultation responses will also be published on that date.