Subscribe to trusted local news
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.
29
Jul
New figures reveal extent of roadwork hell on Harrogate’s Otley Road
Harrogate’s Otley Road has been dug up no fewer than 32 times in the last two years for roadworks.
Frustrated motorist Neil Crabtree set out to discover the figure after frequently encountering delays when crossing Harrogate.
Mr Crabtree submitted a freedom of information request to highways authority North Yorkshire Council asking how often it had granted permits for roadworks on two routes he uses often — Otley Road in Killinghall and Oaker Bank — between July 21, 2023 and July 28, 2025.
The response revealed 32 permits had been issued for Otley Road and eight for Oaker Bank, where the recent four-way lights for Harrogate Spring Water’s project to build a new pipeline led to two months of delays. Harrogate Spring Water paid £600 for a permit to carry out the work.
Mr Crabtree said:
I have spent the last three years travelling from Bilton to Rosset High School to drop my children off and then travel from there towards Ripon, through Harlow Moor Road onto Penny Pot Lane and Oaker Bank and then onto Otley Road. In all that time there has never been a time, bar the Great Yorkshire Show, where there has not been some form of roadworks and there are temporary lights often in multiple and simultaneous locations along that route and also alternative routes.
He described the Harrogate Spring Water project as “the icing on the cake”, adding: “It inched along the road for several weeks. Then ironically North Yorkshire Council resurfaced the road. There are that many diversion signs no one knows where they are being diverted from or where they are being diverted to.
Councillor Malcolm Taylor, the council's new highways chief, described Harrogate as a "big priority" area in a Stray Ferret interview last weekend. You can read it here.
He pledged to step-in when roadworks weren't being managed properly.
"If there is going to be inconvenience it needs to be done as quickly as possible and managed in sections rather than shutting big parts of Harrogate down," he said.
The Stray Ferret has submitted more questions to Harrogate Spring Water about its pipeline project, including the latest roadworks details. We will publish its response.
0