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    04

    Feb 2021

    Last Updated: 03/02/2021
    Transport
    Transport

    Killinghall bypass 'yesterday's solution' to congestion

    by Thomas Barrett

    | 04 Feb, 2021
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    North Yorkshire County Council thinks a £20m bypass is part of the solution to easing congestion in the Harrogate district. But the idea is unpopular with environmental group Zero Carbon Harrogate.

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    Killinghall Road

    Proposals for a £20 million Killinghall bypass have been criticised by environmental group Zero Carbon Harrogate.

    North Yorkshire County Council has put forward plans to build a bypass, with a likely route from the Old Spring Well pub on the A59 to the roundabout in Ripley that goes to Pateley Bridge and Ripon.

    It would be one of range of measures, including a park and ride bus scheme and enhanced cycling routes, to ease congestion in the Harrogate district.

    But Rod Beardshall, transport lead at ZCH, told the Stray Ferret awareness of climate change had increased locally and building a major new road would "send out the wrong message".

    Mr Beardshall described the decision to refuse Harrogate Spring Water's expansion plans into Rotary Wood as a "tipping point" for the town, where environmental concerns outweighed other factors.



    He called a bypass "yesterday's solution" to tackling congestion:

    "It would take years to build and as the climate situation moves on the idea would end up being more anachronistic."


    Killinghall has been bedevilled by traffic for decades and the problem has worsened recently as new housing developments have swelled the size of the village.



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    Mr Beardshall highlighted a 2017 study by countryside charity CPRE that suggests new roads actually increase traffic rather than ease congestion.

    He described roads "a very clumsy tool to address congestion" and called on the council to focus on better bus services and walking and cycling access for Killinghall. He even suggested charging motorists to drive through the village:

    "If you build a road, it's there forever.
    "By thinking about a bypass you take the eye off the ball for more imaginative solutions."


    Last month, councillor Don Mackenzie, executive member for access at North Yorkshire County Council, said the bypass would ease congestion in the “fastest-growing village in the county”.

    He said:

    “We have a duty to respond to the many residents and local members who feel that they want to take some of this traffic out of their village.
    “That includes 44-tonne lorries, which could not be replaced by a person walking or cycling. That is why we firmly believe that certainly further consideration of a bypass to take this traffic out of the village is needed.”