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16
Oct
Laughter as Yorkshire Water offers to sponsor village bonfire to 'apologise' for road chaos
Yorkshire Water has offered to sponsor Kirkby Malzeard’s bonfire to apologise for weeks of road closures in the village.
Councillor Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, a Liberal Democrat who represents Masham and Fountains, held a public meeting at the Kirkby Malzeard Mechanics Institute last night (October 15) to address ongoing frustrations caused by two concurrent road closures.
People raised concerns about congestion, damage to roads and road safety.
Yorkshire Water, which is behind both sets of work, closed Church Street on September 28 to fix a burst water main.
Work finished three days ahead of schedule and the road reopened on Tuesday (October 14) but Main Street – which shut on August 27 – is expected to remain closed for another 10 weeks after a collapsed sewer caused a sinkhole to develop.
Cllr Cunliffe-Lister asked representatives of Yorkshire Water and North Yorkshire Council's highways department to attend last night's meeting – or provide an update on the work – but neither turned up.
She told the room she had not received a response from highways but read a statement from Yorkshire Water.
In it, the company acknowledges its communication has “not been thorough enough”.
It cited the Stray Ferret’s recent article, which gave an update on Church Street reopening, adding letters will be sent to all residents and “targeted social media adverts” will be published.
But Yorkshire Water's offer to sponsor the village bonfire as compensation was met only with laughter. The statement said:
My colleagues are in contact with Kirkby Malzeard Laverton Dallowgill One Village discussing the possibility of sponsoring the village bonfire event by way of an apology to the local community.
Yorkshire Water hopes traffic flow will improve now Church Street has reopened, the statement added, and told Cllr Cunliffe-Lister a public drop-in session could also be arranged.
Roadworks on Main Street.
Kirkby Malzeard couple Sharon and Oliver Hirst previously told the Stray Ferret things worsened after people took matters into their own hands and disregarded a short diversion.
Before Church Street reopened, drivers were redirected via either Grewelthorpe or Laverton to access the village. But the couple said people instead chose to “drive the wrong way” down Back Lane, a one-way route that runs parallel to Main Street, to avoid the diversion.
The couple said it had caused “chaos” in the village.
To make matters even worse, Back Lane is now also closed after a vehicle became stuck on it on Tuesday night.
‘The frustration in this room is enormous’
Yorkshire Water’s statement added work to Main Street will continue for nearly three more months.
The company said it planned to close traffic in one direction on Main Street but it had been forced to shut both lanes when the sinkhole got bigger.
The owner of Kirkby Stores, located on Main Street, last night claimed work didn't appear to have started on the road despite it being closed for several weeks.
She told the meeting:
I don’t think work has even started. I think I've seen them twice.
We just want to know when work will actually start. That’s why we’re here really.
Residents floated the idea of a one-way system or temporary traffic lights around the village, and called for “proper traffic management” to be put in place.
One man added:
The frustration in this room is absolutely enormous. We need to make sure North Yorkshire highways give a response and comes back here to meet with all of us.
Another resident asked Cllr Cunliffe-Lister to ensure North Yorkshire highways implements a full traffic management plan by this Friday (October 18).
Cllr Cunliffe-Lister, who was applauded for her efforts at the end of the meeting, concluded:
I will get them here as soon as I can.
'We appreciate this is not what residents want to hear'
Yorkshire Water told the Stray Ferret this week work on Main Street would be completed by December 6, which would be considerably sooner than the 10-week timeline mentioned at last night's meeting.
We asked it for clarification and to respond to claims work has not yet started. A spokesperson said:
Our team is currently undertaking a repair on our wastewater network on Main Street. The fix is incredibly complex, and we are now expecting it to take 10 weeks to complete. This means the road closure will also likely be in place after the originally planned date of December 6.
We appreciate that this is not what local residents want to hear, but the road closure is necessary for the safety of our team, road users, and pedestrians.
The damaged pipe is nine metres underground, and so to make sure work can be carried out safely, we are conducting a ground condition survey. Whilst we conduct these surveys, it may seem that there’s less action than you might typically expect on site, but we’d like to assure residents that our teams are working as quickly as they can.
We thank residents once again for their patience.
The Stray Ferret has also approached North Yorkshire Council's highways department for an update on the work and requested details of any traffic management plans.
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