Residents near one of the main house-building sites in Harrogate have called for urgent road safety action after a lorry and car collided.
About 600 homes are due to be built near Kingsley Drive and Kingsley Road.
Kingsley Ward Action Group, which campaigns to protect green spaces in the area, is angry because it claims safety fears are being ignored.
A video showing last week’s collision, which led to the car being written off, prompted the group to write to highways authority North Yorkshire County Council.
The email said:
“We have repeatedly stated that Kingsley Road is not suitable for this type of heavy construction traffic.
“Only luck prevented this being even worse and watching the video should make you grateful you don’t have to risk living on this road.”
The council’s response, seen by the Stray Ferret, says extra traffic is “unavoidable” when developments are being built.
The council added it would “ensure that the concerns of Kingsley Ward Action Group are made known to the housing developers that are currently using hauliers for the movement of bulk materials” but the lack of specific measures has angered the group.
It replied:
“Your response to our grave concerns backed up with hard video proof does not fill us with confidence that you are in fact acting in our interests at all.
“There is a clear danger here.
“From the response we have had to this near tragic incident it is clear only a multiple fatality will actually have any impact on the current truck activity.”
John Hansard, a member of the group, told the Stray Ferret it wanted the council to enforce a 20mph speed limit for site traffic and take tough action against lorries with uncovered loads.
Emily Mellalieu, development management team leader at the council, told the Stray Ferret:
149 homes near Harrogate High School refused“We are conscious of the disruption to residents that inevitably accompanies large-scale residential development such as that in the Kingsley/Bogs Lane area.
“We are liaising with housing developers in the Kingsley Farm area about the impact of their operations and complaints received from residents, councillors and action groups.
“At all times, we place the highest priority on road safety.
“Concerns raised recently have been forwarded to the developers for their attention and we will continue to work with the developers to ensure operations are undertaken as efficiently and safely as possible.
“The developer was required as part of the planning process to produce a construction management plan to mitigate the impact of its operations.”
Councillors have refused 149 new homes on Kingsley Road near Harrogate High School because they said it would make already clogged roads in the area even worse.
Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee had previously blocked the development twice this year due to concerns over the number of homes, traffic congestion and the environment.
Since the plans were last put before HBC in June, developer Richborough Estates reduced the number of homes from 155 to 149 and included a new transport assessment saying residents could use a bus stop in Bilton 1km away.
The site is designated for development within HBC’s Local Plan and HBC’s solicitor has previously warned councillors that refusing the plans could leave them open to a legal challenge by the developer.
However, meeting this afternoon via Zoom, councillors voted by 10 to 1 to refuse the application.
Read more:
There are several developments in the Kingsley area of Harrogate — which could see over 650 homes eventually built.
John Hansard from the Kingsley Ward Action Group spoke to the committee and called the transport assessment produced by the developer “a work of fiction”.
He said:
“There are still serious issues and walking over 1km to public transport makes a mockery of HBC’s carbon reduction strategy.
“Once this natural oasis is lost it’s gone forever and this area of Harrogate will be so much poorer for it.”
Dean Knight, technical director from Richborough, said the developer “has listened” after previous planning committees, but he faced a grilling from Cllr Pat Marsh who asked whether a 1km walk to the nearest bus stop was practical for elderly people or families carrying shopping.
Cllr Marsh called the traffic implications for the development “wrong, very wrong”.
Mr Knight said bus operator Transdev told the developer it was not possible to add a bus stop nearer to the site but said the 1km distance was not an “insurmountable” distance for people to walk.