The £20 million redevelopment of Harrogate College risks creating parking chaos for students, staff and residents – and represents a serious waste of taxpayers’ money.
RE:VISION – Harrogate College is a campaign led by Hornbeam Park Developments which is calling for the project to be paused and rethought, BEFORE it becomes an irreversible lesson in poor decision-making.
Join us in opposing the current nonsensical proposals and demanding a practical solution which truly benefits the community and delivers a brighter future for the college, its staff and its students.
Harrogate College is in the final stages of securing a £20 million redevelopment – with £16 million drawn directly from public coffers.
The current plans would begin by tearing down the college’s main building, refurbished just eight years ago at a cost of £4 million to the taxpayer, only to replace it with a smaller facility.
The new development is promised to feature state-of-the-art facilities such as a mock hospital ward and digital technology centre, and has been branded as a step towards ‘future-proofing’ the campus.
But beneath the surface lie serious concerns, including parking chaos for students, staff and residents; a reduced-capacity building that contradicts growth ambitions; and a deeply questionable use of public funds to demolish and replace a recently upgraded facility.
With the plans heading to North Yorkshire Council’s planning committee on Tuesday 27th May, the clock is ticking.
We’re calling for a smarter, community-focused alternative that makes better use of available land and delivers an all-win outcome for students, staff, residents and taxpayers across North Yorkshire.
RE:VISION fully supports meaningful investment in Harrogate College, but the current redevelopment proposals simply don’t add up.
Rather than demolishing a recently refurbished main building – slashing its value from £5.5 million to an estimated £1.25 million – we’re calling for a more sensible solution.
Our proposal? Build the new facility on the vacant, high-potential land directly adjoining the existing campus controlled by the Department of Education.
This alternative would:
There is still an opportunity to get this right, but the clock is ticking – join us in calling for a smarter solution which benefits the whole community.
David Waddington
Hornbeam Park Developments
Want to see a rethink of the Harrogate College redevelopment? Here’s how you can take action:
RE:VISION is a local campaign led by Hornbeam Park Developments which is calling for the nonsensical £20 million redevelopment of Harrogate College to be paused and rethought before it becomes an irreversible lesson in poor decision-making which fails students, staff and local residents.