Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
10
Jul
Council and covert activist locked in running battle over ancient bridge
North Yorkshire Council appears to be locked in a running battle with a covert right-of-way activist – over a packhorse bridge.
As we reported last month, Spruisty Bridge, which spans Oak Beck at Knox, on the northern edge of Harrogate, was completely fenced off by the council after a member of the public had apparently fallen over a displaced safety rail.
A notice fastened to the metal barriers stated that the closure would last until December 2026, but a council spokesperson later clarified that that was the standard wording of the closure document, and that the handrail would most likely be repaired and the bridge reopened far sooner.
Temporary fencing bars the public from using the bridge.
Even so, the closure was unpopular with local residents, many of whom use the 17th-century footbridge daily to get to work and school.
But now, it appears that one bridge-user has had enough, and taken to pushing the barriers aside to open the bridge – without consent.
A local resident told us:
Someone cut the barriers open on Tuesday night. The council sent someone on Wednesday afternoon and they zip-tied them shut again.
But then someone cut them open again and they’ve been open ever since.
The identity of the guerrilla barrier-buster is not publicly known, nor is the extent of their willingness to keep undoing the council's work. But the to-and-fro of closure and forced reopening looks set to continue for some time – either until the activist is stopped or until the handrail is fixed.
The Stray Ferret has approached North Yorkshire Council for comment.
4