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07
Oct
Call for Knaresborough High Street lights to be replaced with mini roundabout
Businesses in Knaresborough have called on North Yorkshire Council to remove traffic lights on the town’s high street to prevent congestion and "uncecessary exhaust fumes".
A petition organised by Hospital Medical Care Association (HMCA) and signed by 34 businesses has requested that the lights at the junction of York Place and Gracious Street are replaced with a mini roundabout and zebra crossing.
The petitioners said that the current junction was causing poor traffic flow.
Businesses pointed to the roundabout at Bond End, which they say functions “extremely well” and helps to prevent congestion.
Philip Allot, chief executive of HMCA, said:
When my colleagues spoke to local businesses, everyone was positive about the changes needed and 34 businesses signed our formal petition calling on North Yorkshire Council to address these problems.
The petition also calls for parking bays on the opposite side of the road to Tesco to be relocated directly outside Tesco and Greggs.
Philip Allott, chief executive of HMCA.
As part of the changes, businesses have requested that North Yorkshire Council issues a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO), allowing the parking bays to be used as loading bays before 8.30am on weekdays and weekends.
Businesses said the change will help with prevent parking on the double yellow lines for loading/unloading and after 8.30am for motorists to park.
The petition has been referred to the council's highways and Infrastructure department to respond. It was also submitted as a call to action as part of the Knaresborough Neighbourhood Plan.
Concerns over junction
The move comes as local residents have also raised concern over the junction to the council, including instances of cars passing through the lights while on green.
In June, the Stray Ferret spoke with local man James Monaghan, who set up a camera overlooking the crossing to record it between 7am and 7pm each day in hourly segments over a period of three weeks.
Cars drive through the crossing when the man is green, and five children - pixellated out - wait to cross.
He then wrote three separate computer programmes to analyse the footage.
He said:
What I found was shocking: on an average weekday, there are nearly 100 instances of vehicles driving through the green man at this crossing.
In some instances, the cars don’t stop going through the crossing until the green man has ended. It is a miracle that a serious accident has not already occurred.
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