A review into traffic measures on Harrogate’s Oatlands Drive is likely to include new double yellow lines, according to a senior county councillor.
North Yorkshire County Council is due to publish a new set of measures this autumn to improve walking and cycling in the Oatlands Drive area.
The Oatlands Constituency Feasibility Study is being drawn up after the council ditched proposals to introduce a one-way system on the road following complaints from residents.
Cllr Don Mackenzie, executive councillor for highways at North Yorkshire County Council, told the Stray Ferret that he expected double yellow lines to be included in the feasibility study.
It follows concern that drivers have been ignoring signs erected by Harrogate Borough Council warning drivers they face a £100 fine or being towed away if they park on Stray land next to the cycle lane on Oatlands Drive.
The new signs on Oatlands Drive.
One side of Oatlands Drive has double yellow lines but the other side — where cars park — does not.
The signs only appeared last week but pictures have already emerged of cars parked right next to the signs blocking the cycle route.
Double yellows expected for Oatlands
Although Cllr Mackenzie said he could not guarantee where the proposals would suggest the double yellow lines be placed, he said they were likely to be included in a “comprehensive scheme” for the area.
He said:
“I’m pretty sure it will be included.”
Cllr Mackenzie added that the county council had outlined plans for double yellow lines in its rejected proposals for Oatlands.
Read more:
- Drivers defy new ‘no parking’ signs on Harrogate Stray
- New signs will ‘make people think twice’ about parking on Stray, says council
- Controversial Oatlands Drive active travel scheme scrapped
But he added that introducing double yellow lines might just increase parking congestion on other streets.
Cllr Mackenzie said:
“We could have put in yellow lines, but we are also aware that residents on St Hilda’s Road are already suffering from long term parkings problems.
“While those people are not breaking any laws, it does make it difficult to get in and out of driveways.
“Every time we introduce them [double yellow lines], it tends to shift the problem elsewhere. If it did not have a knock on affect then we would have done it.”
Cllr Mackenzie said he expected officers to bring the review into Oatlands to him “in the next few weeks”.
A ‘more permanent solution’ needed
Following the introduction of the signs on Oatlands, a borough council spokesperson said the authority hoped people would “think twice” before parking on the street.
The spokesperson added council officials were working with the county council on a “more permanent solution” to the parking problem.
They said that parking on the Stray breached the Stray Act 1985:
“A breach of the act allows the borough council — as custodians of the Stray — to issue a £100 fine to anyone caught parking on the Stray, or to have their vehicle towed away.
“We hope that the signage will make people think twice about parking on Oatlands Drive and allow cyclists to use the cycle path as intended.”
In a letter to the Stray Ferret, Judy d’Arcy-Thompson, chair of the Stray Defence Association, said yellow lines was the “simplest solution” to parking problems on Oatlands Drive but the county council had been “ridiculously uncooperative”.
