Harrogate's Otley Road and Pannal Ash Road cycleways, budgeted at £5.6m, are now targeted for late 2027. Plus 20mph consultations and Bilton crossing delay.
The two cycleways planned to link west Harrogate with the town centre are not expected to be built until late 2027 at the earliest. Their budgets total £5.6 million.
The dates are in a briefing note and progress table that went to the Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Committee on Thursday 24 September. The table puts the Otley Road route and its associated works at £3.2 million and the Pannal Ash Road route at £2.4 million.
The briefing note says “it is not possible to provide a definitive delivery programme”. Delivery is “currently being targeted for Q4 2027”. The council’s own progress table gives the date as “Q4 27/28”. In the council’s financial year, that would be January to March 2028. The papers do not reconcile the two.
What is planned on each road
Pannal Ash Road:
- a mostly segregated cycleway alongside the existing footway
- short shared-use sections where the road is too narrow for segregation
- an upgraded toucan crossing near Rossett Acre Primary School
Otley Road:
- a mainly shared-use path for people walking and cycling
- a continuous off-road link from the Pot Bank junction towards the town centre
- new and upgraded crossings, and a connection into existing cycle routes
Who is paying, and how
The routes are part of the West Harrogate programme. The briefing note says that programme supports roughly 2,150 to 2,500 homes and includes 28 infrastructure schemes, 14 of them junction improvements.
The money is meant to come from the housebuilders through section 106 agreements. Because those payments arrive slowly, the council borrowed against them. It secured a recoverable grant from Homes England’s Brownfield, Infrastructure and Land Fund, which the note describes as “an interest-free loan facility repayable after 11 years”.
The note adds that monthly drawdowns have started. It also says “the agreed drawdown profile has been impacted by delays to the progression of the Active Travel schemes”.
What people said at the drop-in
The council held a public drop-in at Harlow Hill Methodist Church on 31 July, as part of a Cycle Track Order process. That process is needed to let cyclists use parts of what is now footway. The note summarises the feedback as “broadly split between support and objection”. The main points were:
- general support for spending on walking and cycling
- concerns about the shared-use sections, particularly on Otley Road
- requests for more separation between people walking and people cycling
- concerns about how the routes join up with existing ones in town
The note says some stakeholder groups have also questioned whether the Otley Road design meets “current active travel design aspirations”. It lists the constraints as road width, property frontages, mature trees, gradient, utilities and drainage.
Next, officers will review the objections and report to the council’s decision-making boards. If the schemes go ahead, there will be a further statutory consultation.
The rest of the programme
The committee report updated every walking and cycling scheme in Harrogate and Knaresborough.
| Scheme | Budget | Where it stands | Expected |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wetherby Road/Railway Road crossings | up to £350,000 | Four crossings to become signalised; consultation from October | Jan to Mar 2027 |
| 20mph zones with traffic calming | £130,000/£175,000 | Consultations starting late September or early October, phased | Most works Apr to Jun 2027 |
| Beryl Burton cycleway and Bilton Lane | up to £300,000 | Resurfacing, drainage and vegetation clearance | Oct to Dec 2026 |
| Bilton crossing | £110,000 | Delayed; land has to be dedicated as highway first | “Q2/Q3 2027” |
| Fulwith Mill bridleway | £212,507 | Works started 17 August | Complete |
| Birstwith footway link | £40,282 | New footway to the village | Completed March 2026 |
A few of these need a closer look.
20mph. The 20mph streets in the Otley Road package include Cold Bath Road and Arthurs Avenue and the streets around it, with speed cushions. The report says streets that draw “unresolved objections” will need a separate decision by the Executive Member and “are likely to be delivered later in the programme”.
Bilton crossing. The preferred design could not be built under permitted development rights and might have needed planning permission. The council now plans to dedicate extra land as highway instead. The money had to be spent by 31 March 2027, so the council is asking the Combined Authority to extend that deadline.
Beryl Burton cycleway. The report and the table give different dates. The report says surfacing was programmed for 14 to 25 September. The table says it starts on 5 October, with Bilton Lane patching from 26 October. Check the council’s website before you set off.
The council’s national rating
Active Travel England rates councils from Level 0 to Level 4, and the rating affects funding. The report says North Yorkshire asked to move up to Level 2 in September 2025. In December 2025 it was kept at Level 1, because it had “not yet delivered a sufficient number of higher complexity active travel schemes”. The report notes that 48.8% of the 80 authorities assessed nationally also stayed at Level 1.
What it means for you
- If you live off Otley Road or Pannal Ash Road, nothing will be built for at least a year. There will be a further statutory consultation before it is.
- If you live near Cold Bath Road or Arthurs Avenue, watch for a 20mph consultation in the coming weeks. Objections at that stage can decide when, or whether, a street gets calming.
- If you cycle the Beryl Burton route, expect surfacing work this autumn.
- The full papers are on the meeting page.
For live closures, see our Harrogate roadworks and travel page, and for parking changes, parking in Harrogate.
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