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12
Aug
Plans for 20mph speed limit through Glasshouses progress
Moves to reduce the speed limit to 20mph on the main road through Glasshouses are underway.
North Yorkshire Council pledged in February to review speed limits outside every school in the county to improve road safety – particularly for children and young people.
The council said it would assess more than 400 educational facilities, starting with those where speed limits are the highest, and had “adopted a presumption in favour of lowering the speed limits” in those areas.
The authority released a list of schools identified as part of the scheme, one of which was Glasshouses Community Primary School.
The council consulted on the proposal to reduce the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph and has now published the Traffic Regulation Order necessary for the scheme to progress.
The 20mph zone would run south-west from the Glasshouses Bridge Road junction with the B6265 Lupton Bank – measuring around 653.5 metres in length (pictured below) – and include the section of road outside the primary school.
The council hopes the reduced speed limit would improve road safety in the village.
The proposed 20mph zone through Glasshouses.
‘I am pleased to see common sense prevail’
Glasshouses teenager Bailey Chadwick was killed in a hit-and-run on the B6265 Lupton Bank, which runs between Pateley Bridge and Glasshouses, on July 20.
The 19-year-old was walking along the road in the early hours of the morning when he was struck.
The incident generated local and national attention, but the proposed speed limit reduction is not linked to the fatal collision.
Councillor Andrew Murday, a Liberal Democrat who represents Nidderdale on North Yorkshire Council, told the Stray Ferret the wheels have been in motion for more than a year:
It has nothing to do with the tragic death the other week. It started when children at Glasshouses primary invited me to their school council and asked if there could be a 20mph speed limit outside their school. That was more than a year ago and it has taken us this long to get to the consultation stage.
I hope the consultation will see widespread support and soon after that the limit will be introduced.
Chris Thompson, a Pateley town councillor and former mayor of Pateley Bridge, said residents have been calling for a reduction in the speed limit for more than a decade.
Cllr Thompson, who is also a former chair of Glasshouses Village Association, said:
I and the Glasshouses Village Association have campaigned for years for the main road through Glasshouses to be reduced to 20 mph. It seemed anomalous to us that a mile up the same road in the village of Bewerley there was already a 20mph limit when it has no school, whilst Glasshouses has a 30mph limit but does have a school. Unlike Bewerley, the top half the main road through Glasshouses has no pavements which older children have to walk along daily to get the bus to-and-from senior school.
At every AGM of the association during my 10 years of being its chair, the need for a 20mph limit was always raised by Glasshouses residents. Although I am no longer the association chair, I am very pleased to see common sense prevail.
As far as I'm aware, the North Yorkshire Council consultation is the last step before the speed limit signs go up. I am personally most grateful to Pateley Bridge Town Council, and our North Yorkshire councillor, Andrew Murday, for taking this up with North Yorkshire Council.
Cllr Thompson added it was “important to stress” the proposed 20mph zone was in the works for some time before Bailey’s death, and affects a different section of road to where Bailey was struck.
The Traffic Regulation Order consultation period, which gives people the opportunity to have their say on the proposed speed reduction runs until Thursday (August 14).
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