A community-led plan could see five schools in the west of Harrogate involved in a pilot scheme to encourage pupils to walk and cycle.
Harrogate Grammar School, Rossett School and Ashville College, along with Rossett Acre and Western primary schools, would all be covered by a 20mph zone with supporting infrastructure, such as safe crossing points.
Jenny Marks presented the proposal to North Yorkshire County Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee this morning.
It follows extensive work done by Dr Marks, Ruth Lily and other members of the community to engage with schools, parents and community groups to assess potential support for the scheme. Dr Marks told the meeting:
“We are speaking from a position of significant collective concern for the safety of nearly 5,000 schoolchildren and for all of those who use the network of roads around these schools on a daly basis, including residents and users of Rossett and Ashville sports centre, Busy Bees nursery and Rossett Nature Reserve.
“We’re speaking from a strong position of local knowledge and support, having spent the last 18 months consulting schools, local residents and other stakeholders in order to better understand their needs.”
Dr Marks said the extensive consultation had enabled the group to formulate a detailed plan for the area which would help to make walking and cycling safer, encouraging people out of their cars.
She said the changes would be increasingly important as more and more homes were built in the area, increasing the number of children travelling to local schools.
She received support from across the chamber for the plan, which followed the committee voting to support 20mph zones around schools at its previous meeting last month.
Read more:
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Councillors praised the work the group had done to engage with the local community, including speaking at Harrogate and Pannal Ash Residents Association’s AGM.
Cllr Michael Schofield (pictured above), whose Harlow and St George’s division includes three of the five schools involved, said:
“I was fortunate enough to grow up in my division and attend two of the schools, as did my wife. The schools then were very safe to walk to, very safe to cycle to.
“My two children have been to three of the schools – one Rossett Acre and Rossett High, one Rossett Acre and the grammar school. The traffic now is absolutely atrocious.
“Because of the lack of a safe active travel scheme round there, it’s turning into a bit of a self-destruction merry-go-round.
“Parents feel that the roads aren’t safe enough for their children to cycle on to school, so they then jump in the car and take them to school, adding to the problem.”
Highways department to decide
The proposal for the zone will be submitted to North Yorkshire County Council’s highways department, which will consider whether the 20mph zone could be introduced. Highways officers are expected to report back to the area committee at a future meeting.
However, Cllr Pat Marsh, who represents the Stray, Woodlands and Hookstone division, said a 20mph limit had been outside Hookstone Chase Primary School for 15 years but was ignored. She added:
“I think we are all supportive — it’s not that we’re negative at all, because we do want to protect particularly schools, our children, and encourage them to get out of cars onto bikes or walking.
“We have got to go through the due process and for me, I want the police here, I want the police to monitor them, because without that we’re lost.
“We can have all the signs we want, but until somebody starts to fine the people who abuse it, we don’t go anywhere.”
