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22
Jul 2024
Highways boss rejects ‘two-tier’ roads maintenance claims
North Yorkshire’s roads boss has rejected suggestions that a “two-tier” system for maintaining highways across the county and York is being created.
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for highways Councillor Keane Duncan pledged the establishment of a Key Route Network (KRN) would not mean certain routes would be prioritised above others.
A report to City of York Council, which has worked with North Yorkshire on the creation of the network, said any road included in the list provided strategic connections between towns, cities or regions, gave access to an important location or carried high-frequency bus services.
Thereport states:
There is likely to be an expectation that roads within the Key Route Network will be maintained to a higher level than other roads and therefore the decision across the two local authorities will impact how the maintenance funds are allocated.
Here is a list of routes included on the network, according to the report.
North Yorkshire’s executive member for climate change, Cllr Greg White, questioned whether repairs on other parts of the road network would be carried out quickly and efficiently.
He said:
There is always a concern when some parts of the network are singled out for special treatment that other parts will receive a reduced service.
But Cllr Duncan said nothing would change in how the authority maintained and operated roads in the county.
He said the routes included in the Key Route Network amounted to 684km of “strategic roads”, or just over seven per cent of North Yorkshire’s 9,000km road network.
Cllr Duncan said:
Just to be clear, we are not in any way creating a two-tier road network. One advantage, however, to the designations in the Key Route Network, we hope, is that this could help secure funding from government for strategic schemes we might like to introduce.
The network does not include routes that form part of the Strategic Road Network that are managed and maintained by National Highways, such as the A1(M), M62, A64, A66(T), A168(T) and the A19(T).
It is expected funding for maintenance schemes on the network will be part of the usual local highway authority funding streams, which in North Yorkshire is £37 million a year.
Responding to the proposed network, which will be considered by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, North Yorkshire’s climate change champion, Cllr Paul Haslam, called on the council “to look beyond road-based solutions”, especially in Harrogate.
He said while 2018 had seen significant work undertaken to examine how congestion in Harrogate and Knaresborough could be tackled, little as yet had been implemented.
Paul Haslam
Cllr Haslam said:
I note that the A59 and the A61 are on the list, but it should be noted that 93 per cent of traffic is generated internally, with over 60 per cent of journeys 2km or less.
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