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25
Sept
Frustration mounts over Starbeck level crossing
North Yorkshire Council is still to measure air quality at Starbeck level crossing — two years after councillors pressed for the authority to take action.
There are longstanding concerns about the environmental impact of idling car engines when the barriers are down.
At a Harrogate and Knaresborough area committee meeting on Thursday (September 24), council officials confirmed that an air quality monitor had been acquired and would be installed on the High Street near the crossing.
It comes after councillors on the committee approved funding for a project to monitor the crossing in 2024.
Frustration at the amount of time action is taking was evident at Thursday’s meeting.
Andrew Hart, who owns the Red Box post office on Starbeck High Street, asked the council when it would commit to installing modern air quality monitoring stations in the area.
Starbeck level crossing
A council response confirmed that a piece of kit had been acquired and was currently at a highway depot at Leeming Bar.
The authority said:
The regulatory services scientific team have purchased an automatic real-time air quality monitor to measure nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter at Starbeck level crossing. It is currently at the highway depot at Leeming Bar awaiting installation at a suitable location on the High Street in Starbeck.
Once we have received confirmation that the monitor has been installed and we can access the data, we will work with partners within the council to look at the feasibility of installing anti-idling signage which does not distract from other signage associated with the crossing.
Timescales are beyond the control of the scientific team as we are beholden to the priorities of the partner service areas.
Councillors approved funding of between £7,500 and £35,000 on three projects, including installing the equipment at Starbeck, in September 2024.
At the time, the council said data gathering would lay the groundwork for future projects at the crossings aimed at improving traffic movement and working alongside rail operator Northern and Network Rail to improve signalling infrastructure.
Cllr Peter Lacey, Liberal Democrat chair of the area committee, said he hoped there would be no further delays in installing the monitor.
He said:
We have a physical piece of kit and I hope that the little comment at the end of the response in terms of liaison between departments is what doesn’t hold it up. We do not want kits sat on a shelf somewhere when it can be useful next to the road.
Nine trains an hour
The crossing is often the bane of motorists' lives due to the frequency of trains travelling through Starbeck station.
As many as nine trains pass through the station every hour, leaving vehicles stuck in traffic for several minutes while the barriers are down.
Cllr Philip Broadbank, who represents Fairfax and Starbeck.
Cllr Philip Broadbank, Liberal Democrat councillor for Fairfax and Starbeck, said resolutions to solve the problem had been “brought back and sent back” at the council for years.
He said:
For traffic delays, Starbeck level crossing is the worst in North Yorkshire. It has been an issue for a long, long, long time and we still keep getting these reassurances that something might happen. But, nobody knows quite when but something will happen.
It just gets so frustrating when you get the same responses every time you raise it.
An issue for decades
The problem over how to solve congestion at Starbeck crossing has been going on for decades.
Cllr Philip Broadbank, who represents Fairfax and Starbeck on North Yorkshire Council, said previously that the crossing has been an issue in the area since 1929 with various solutions failing to solve it.
In 2019, the former North Yorkshire County Council reviewed the crossing and assessed how long the barriers were down for queuing traffic.
But a subsequent report with suggested improvements was rejected when the council concluded it was “unlikely to provide measurable benefits”.
Delays at the crossing also affect emergency service vehicles attending incidents.
In 2022, firefighters called on Zoe Metcalfe, the former Conservative police, fire and crime commissioner for North Yorkshire, to tackle the issue of Starbeck crossing holding up fire engines attending emergencies.
Cllr Paul Haslam, who represents Bilton and Nidd Gorge, said the technology used at the signalling box by Network Rail to lift the crossing at Starbeck was “totally out of date” and led to delays of up to seven minutes.
In October last year, he called on David Skaith, Labour Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, to join the council and other authorities to “put pressure” on the rail organisation to take action.
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