North Yorkshire county councillors in Ripon and Skipton have rejected a call to pilot 20 mph zones.

Campaigners backing the 20’s Plenty For Us initiative say reducing speed limits to 20 mph on residential streets and in town and village centres would make streets safer for pedestrians and reduce road casualties.

The initiative has been backed by over 100 parish councils in North Yorkshire, with many residents growing frustrated at speeding motorists, particularly in rural areas. However, critics have voiced concerns about the cost and how the zones would be enforced by police.

This year, North Yorkshire County Council’s executive approved a policy to introduce 20 mph speed limits on a “targeted, evidence-based approach”. This followed a review by the authority’s transport, economy and environment overview and scrutiny committee, which will revisit the issue in January.

‘They save lives’

The 20’s Plenty campaign inspired Green Party member for Skipton North and Embsay-with-Eastby division, David Noland, to propose a motion at this week’s Skipton and Ripon area constituency committee of the county council recommending 20mph zones are created in any village or town centre where “benefit has been identified”.

Cllr Noland said:

“[20mph zones] are popular, save lives, reduce the severity of injuries, CO2 emissions and potholes. They are sustainable and will hopefully encourage more people to walk and cycle. If this committee says we support it, it puts a bit of pressure on [executive member for highways] Cllr Duncan.”

In November, a similar motion was passed at the Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee. But in Skipton and Ripon, it received a skeptical response from councillors.

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Conservative councillor for Settle & Penyghent, David Staveley, described the analysis that underpins 20’s Plenty “questionable at best” and said residents in Skipton and Ripon “would not appreciate being guinea pigs” in any pilot. He added:

“I won’t support this, it’s fundamentally flawed in its approach. I don’t see it will give the benefits it claims”.

‘What’s the point?’

North Yorkshire Police has previously come out against countywide 20 mph zones due to the increased costs involved.

David Ireton, Conservative councillor for Bentham and Ingleton, said the force “refuses to enforce” 20 mph speed limits, adding, “that causes major problems with residents. They say, what’s the point in having it?”.

Liberal Democrat councillor for Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale, Andrew Murday, said he backed 20’s Plenty but would wait for the outcome of the county council meeting on the subject next month. He said:

“I’m going to abstain. I support 20’s Plenty, mainly because it does reduce injuries but if it’s coming to the council I’ll leave it to them”.

The Environment Agency has called for the creation of an asphalt plant near Knaresborough to be rejected.

The government department has raised concerns over potential pollution to controlled waters in response to Tynedale Roadstone’s planned plant at Allerton Waste Recovery Park, just yards from the A1(M).

The firm, which produces bituminous macadam and asphalt products for roads, already has plants in Newcastle and County Durham and says it needs a third facility to serve contracts for customers in the Yorkshire area.

The plant would include facilities for recycling plastics and other waste products, which could be supplied from operations within the recovery park, into asphalt materials.

Tynedale says the plant would also have the capability to recycle old road material into new asphalt products.

In planning documents submitted to North Yorkshire County Council, agents for the firm said the plant would create about 10 jobs. They said:

“The very nature of the proposed scheme means that it will be crucial to facilitating and servicing highways works and projects in the area.

“The plant would be suitably located in terms of surrounding land uses and would complement the wider Allerton Waste Recovery Park, particularly due to its ability to utilise plastic waste from the waste recovery plant in the production of final asphalt products.”

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The wider site includes Allerton Waste Recovery Plant, which process 320,000 tonnes of waste a year from York and North Yorkshire councils, a partially completed landfill in a former quarry, a concrete batching plant and a methane gas plant.

Planning documents reveal pre-application talks with the council’s planning officers concluded the principle of locating an asphalt plant at the site was considered a compatible use with the other operations on the site.

However, lodging an objection to the development. the Environment Agency said the firm needed to demonstrate the risk of pollution to controlled waters could be appropriately managed.

The agency stated: 

“The previous use of the proposed development site as a landfill presents a high risk of contamination that could be mobilised during construction to pollute controlled waters.

“Controlled waters are particularly sensitive in this location because the development site is located upon a principal aquifer.”

Principal aquifers provide significant quantities of drinking water.

The agency said the applicants had identified the pollution risks without providing adequate mitigation and the plans for piling on the site could result in risks to aquifers.

Plans have been submitted to demolish the ‘little temple’ in Harrogate town centre to make way for the £11.2 million Station Gateway scheme.

North Yorkshire County Council has applied to remove the tempietto even though it is still assessing responses to the latest gateway consultation and has yet to make a final decision on whether the scheme will proceed.

The application says the removal of the tempietto and restoration of the site is expected to be carried out in April 2023. But a council spokesman told the Stray Ferret this date was “indicative”, adding it would only be removed as part of the gateway works.

A decision on whether to proceed with the gateway is not expected until late next year.

Classical design

The tempietto, which is inside Harrogate Conservation Area, was built between 1988 and 1992 as part of the redevelopment of the area to create the Victoria Shopping Centre.

Made of Jedburgh sandstone, its classical design was based on the work of 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio’s basilica at Vicenza in Italy.

The government-funded gateway scheme would see major changes to the public realm opposite the train station to make the gateway to Harrogate more attractive to visitors and more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians.

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It would also see part of Station Parade reduced to single lane traffic to accommodate cycle routes and James Street partly pedestrianised. Business groups and residents have voiced concerns about the impact on trade and traffic.

A planning document submitted as part of the council’s application says “the demolition of the tempietto would have a negligible impact on the significance of Harrogate Conservation Area”. It adds:

“Although of low historic significance, the tempietto offers some aesthetic contribution to the historic character and is sensitive to Harrogate Conservation Area in its use of materials.”

The planning document, which describes the little temple’s condition as ‘reasonably good’ also refers to a 2016 character appraisal of the area, which said:

“Unfortunately, apart from the paving of the area enclosed by the quadrant of Victoria Gardens, the opportunity to create an attractive, formal space was not taken and the area presents a very ‘bitty’ appearance with paths, low fences and hedges, and a thoroughly unscholarly tempietto.”

‘Bitty’ — how Victoria Gardens is described.

Emma Gibbens, principal conservation officer for place-shaping and economic growth said in a consultation comment on behalf of Harrogate Borough Council:

“If the removal of the structure was not part of a new public realm scheme, its loss would be regrettable in terms of loss of visual interest, but could not said to impact detrimentally on the historic environment.

“However, the removal is part of a scheme that will provide a new high quality public realm to this part of the conservation area and there is no objection to its removal in this situation.”

Harrogate’s former Viper Rooms has already attracted “significant interest from potential tenants”, according to landlord North Yorkshire County Council.

The nightclub, which was part of the historic Royal Baths, closed suddenly on Friday last week when bailiffs changed the locks.

Nightclub owner Paul Kinsey said on social media the landlord had repossessed the building after the two parties failed to agree a new lease and that 30 people had lost their jobs.

Gary Fielding, corporate director for strategic resources at the council, said in a statement last weekend it had acted “in the best interests of North Yorkshire’s taxpayers” but declined to elaborate.

The closure of the Viper Rooms means two of the four commercial units at the Royal Baths are now empty.

Asked about the council’s plans for the Royal Baths, Mr Fielding indicated all four units could be occupied soon. He said:

“Two of the four units which are overseen by ourselves are occupied by a JD Wetherspoon pub and the Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant.

“A unit which did house the Viper Rooms has already attracted significant interest from potential tenants, while a new agreement for the final one is in the final stages of negotiations.

“We remain firmly committed to working constructively with tenants where this is in the interests of both local residents and businesses.”

Viper Rooms

Mr Fielding said North Yorkshire County Council inherited the terms of the Royal Baths lease when it bought the grade two listed building from Harrogate Borough Council for £9 million in 2018. He added:

“Among those conditions is Harrogate Borough Council continuing the lease arrangements on a peppercorn rent for two units, which are occupied by the Tourist Information Centre and the Turkish Baths.

“The significance of the visitor economy to Harrogate is well-documented, so both of these units serve important roles in providing information to visitors as well as housing a renowned attraction in the Turkish Baths.

“Alongside the units at the Royal Baths, there are various car parking arrangements at the site including a long-term lease to Harrogate Borough Council and some private arrangements that generate income.

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Mr Fielding defended the council’s decision to repossess Viper Rooms. He said:

“We have tried hard to understand the difficulties all our tenants have experienced as a result of the covid pandemic and to offer them our support. This has, in turn, had an impact on our own finances.

“Residents and businesses here rightly expect us to ensure that every effort is made to protect public money and we have a duty to do just that.

“While we do not want to comment on individual cases, we must be fair and consistent and act in the best interests of the public who we serve.”

Mr Kinsey has said he does not wish to comment further at this stage.

A toucan crossing on Harrogate’s Wetherby Road looks set to be installed next year after plans were approved.

North Yorkshire County Council proposed the crossing to encourage walking and cycling at the junction with Slingsby Walk.

It will be the fourth set of lights in less than a mile between the Empress roundabout and the Woodlands junction, which is already one of the most congested stretches of road around Harrogate.

Council officials have estimated the crossing could double the number of cyclists using the Slingsby Walk route, which runs alongside the Stray.

Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for highways at the authority, approved the crossing at a meeting yesterday.

Subject to a feasibility study, it will be installed in the 2023/24 financial year.

The section of Wetherby Road and Slingsby Walk which is earmarked for a new crossing.

Cllr Duncan said:

“A crossing at Slingsby Walk would be a positive step forward for active travel in Harrogate, providing a safe, formal crossing point for both pedestrians and cyclists who might currently be hesitant about using the link.

“We recognise the concerns around existing traffic congestion on this section of Wetherby Road and at the meeting we discussed how we will use sensor technology to detect automatically when the crossing is clear to ensure no unnecessary delays to motorists.

“We are committed to doing more to create opportunities for people to walk or cycle for work, education and shopping as part of a balanced approach to travel. This means doing what we can to support all road users – motorists, cyclists, pedestrians and public transport services.”

Likely to increase delays

Council officers have admitted the crossing is likely to cause further delays for drivers.

In a report outlining the proposal, Barrie Mason, assistant director for highways and transportation, accepted the move would likely increase pressure on the road network.

He added there were also officer concerns over “existing traffic congestion on this section of Wetherby Road”.

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However, he said these concerns had to be balanced against the benefit that it would offer to pedestrians and cyclists.

Funding of £75,000 for the crossing has been secured from Harrogate Borough Council’s sustainable transport budget.

The group on Langcliffe Avenue

A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said:

“The first step in the Community Speed Watch process is to identify areas for the group to stand. Once approved, the group will receive training, and at that point they can either share equipment with other nearby groups or purchase their own equipment.

“Once fully trained, the group can deploy as often as they wish, although most groups deploy for an hour at a time, once or twice a week.

“Any vehicles found to be speeding will have their details taken down and sent to the North Yorkshire Police traffic bureau. Once verified, the registered keepers of those vehicles will receive warning letters. A police officer will attend the address of the registered keeper if they are ‘caught’ three times.

“We currently have about 88 groups taking part in the scheme across North Yorkshire. Since its inception in 2016, around 96% of all offences have been first offences – indicating that people who receive their first warning letter do take the advice on board and adjust their driving behaviour.”

No end in sight to Sharow’s pothole plight

Work to repair potholes in Sharow has not been included in the North Yorkshire County Council programme for next year.

Villagers are set to face continuing bumpy rides after discovering the capital programme for the 2023/24 financial year does not include the repairs, estimated to cost around £200,000.

Village campaigner James Thornborough told the Stray Ferret:

“As well as being bad news for anybody who drives, cycles or walks along New Road or Sharow Lane, this has wider implications for people across the county waiting for work to be carried out on potholed and uneven roads.”

His disappointment follows an email response seen by the Stray Ferret in which Barrie Mason, NYCC’s assistant director of highways and transportation, said:

“The delivery programme for the 2023/24 capital programme has been determined and cost pressures in the budget due to construction price inflation means that a number of schemes that were already programmed have had to be put back and consequently a scheme for Sharow Lane and New Road will not be delivered in 2023/24, but will be considered again against priorities across the county network for the 2024/25 programme.”

He added:

“I can assure you that the team will in the meantime ensure that these roads are inspected and maintained in line with our Highways Safety Inspection Manual and responsibilities as the local highway authority to ensure that any safety defects are repaired.”

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The Stray Ferret approached Mr Mason to ask what other schemes in the the Harrogate district have been removed from the capital programme for 2023/24, but no response had been received at the time of publication.

In February, after raising Sharow’s pothole plight with NYCC’s chief executive Richard Flinton, Mr Thornborough felt reassured after receiving a rapid email response from the county’s head of highways operations Nigel Smith, who said:

“Sharow Lane and New Road are at a stage where preventative maintenance is not an option and a more substantial maintenance scheme will be considered for inclusion in our Forward Capital Programme, which presently means that the earliest a planned maintenance scheme could be delivered would be during the 2023/24 financial year.

“By way of further information, it is anticipated that a full ‘plane out and resurface’ scheme is required at this location, which will require funding of up to £200,000.

“In the meantime we will continue to do the annual safety inspections and reactive inspections to keep these carriageways in as safe a condition as possible and keep the matter under regular review.”

Within days of the email,  NYCC workmen identified 38 potholes in Sharow and a temporary tarmac fix was applied.

Now, with the full plane out and resurfacing works ruled out for the coming financial year, Mr Thornborough, said:

“The council itself accepts that preventative maintenance is no longer an option for the affected roads in the village, but if they can’t find the £200,000 to do this job, it sends a worrying message about their ability to keep all roads across the county in an acceptable condition.”

North Yorkshire’s transport chief has admitted partially repainted bus stop markings on the A59 Skipton Road in Harrogate “look silly”.

The work was pointed out by local resident Alan Huddart on social media, who criticised it as a sign of “broken Britain”.

The bus stop in New Park is next to Kdcarpets and looks worn and faded.

In the middle, contractors have carried out work to reinstate a trench but appear to have only repainted where the work has been carried out.

Mr Huddart took to social media to ask Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for highways at North Yorkshire County Council, why the contractor could not have completed the rest of the markings.

He asked:

“Surely they could have done the rest?”

The bus markings pictured this afternoon. Picture: Lisa Galinsky.

In response, Cllr Duncan admitted that the work had left the stop looking “silly”.

He said:

“This really does look silly. Leave it with me.”

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Mr Huddart told the Stray Ferret that the work had yet to be fixed.

The Stray Ferret asked North Yorkshire County Council whether contractors would be returning to the area to finish the work.

In response, Melisa Burnham, highways area manager, said:

“Utility companies are only mandated to replace lining on the section of road that they have excavated and reinstated.

“However, in this case the bus stop is no longer in use and the lining will therefore be removed as soon as possible.”

North Yorkshire County Council has agreed to create a county-wide local plan that will plot where housing and development can take place over the next 30 years.

Conservative councillors on the authority’s executive met today to approve the creation of the document, which must be finalised within five years of the new North Yorkshire Council forming on April 1.

It will replace the seven local plans that are currently used by the soon-to-be abolished district councils.

This also means the reviews that are under way on the plans for Harrogate Borough Council and Craven District Council will be halted. However, both documents will still guide planning decisions until the new local plan is created.

Harrogate Borough Council’s local plan says around 13,000 homes can be built across the district between 2014 and 2034.

Conservative Mid-Craven councillor Simon Myers, executive member for planning for growth, told the meeting that the local plan will be “hugely important to the economic vitality of the county”.

He said:

“It’s hugely important for the provision of housing and for many strategic matters. It is imperative we have an ambitious local plan for North Yorkshire and that planning committees abide by it.”

Cllr Myers confirmed that the new council will create six new planning committees to oversee decisions across parliamentary constituency areas, such as Harrogate and Knaresborough, and Skipton and Ripon.

Linda Marfitt, acting head of place-shaping and economic growth at the council, said the creation of a new local plan is a “great opportunity to deliver some of the ambitions the new council will have”.

She said:

“A plan-led approach will ensure the new council is in the best possible place to guide quality development and infrastructure.”

Maltkiln

While a review into Harrogate council’s local plan will now not take place, work on the Maltkiln development plan document will continue.

Maltkiln is the name of a new settlement proposed by the Oakgate Group around Cattal railway station.

It is set to have between 3,000 and 4,000 homes, as well as two primary schools, shops and a GP surgery.

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The development plan is in the latter stages of development, after being worked on for the last two years. It sets out a 30-year vision and policy framework on how Maltkiln is designed and developed.

However, Arnold Warneken, Green Party councillor for Ouseburn division, described the process of forming it as “rushed” and said residents have unanswered questions over the boundary of the settlement as well as the position of a new relief road.

He said:

“The whole process, from my perspective and the eight parish councils it will affect, has been rushed. I’m really, really keen that if this settlement goes ahead it becomes the exemplar it’s meant to be. 

“I don’t want it to be rushed, I want it to be right. I want to exercise caution before the inspector gets his hands on it”.

In response, Cllr Michael Harrison, Conservative councillor for Killinghall, Hampsthwaite & Saltergate as well as executive member for health and adult said: 

“We want the Maltkiln DPD to be right and planning in Harrogate could never be described as rushed.”

He added: 

“If we pause progression of DPD it ceases to be a plan-led approach in the local area. 

“The worst thing we could do is to stop the Maltkiln DPD because we’d still have to determine those planning applications.”

Tributes have been paid to former Harrogate mayor and long-standing councillor Jim Clark, who has died.

Mr Clark, who was born in Arbroath and later moved to North Yorkshire, represented residents on both Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council.

He represented the Harlow division on the county council for 20 years before stepping down in May.

During his tenure, he was made chair of the county council – a role he held during the covid pandemic when meetings were held remotely. He had previously served as Mayor of the Borough of Harrogate, with Cllr Shirley Fawcett as Mayoress.

Mr Clark was a keen advocate for mental health and hospital facilities and represented the county on West Yorkshire Health Scrutiny Panel.

Paying tribute to him, Cllr Carl Les, leader of the county council, said:

“Jim was a strong advocate for mental health services as well as the preservation of key hospital services in the county.

“This was highlighted during his time as the chair of the council’s scrutiny of health committee from September 2010 to May 2019, when he stood down to be appointed as the authority’s chair.

“His presence in County Hall was already missed after he decided not to stand for re-election at the elections in May this year.

“But the news of Jim’s passing is a huge shock to all of us who knew and respected him for the dedicated and talented man that he was.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jim’s family at this desperately sad time, and he will be remembered as someone who was committed to ensuring the very best was achieved for North Yorkshire.”

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As well as a councillor, Mr Clark was a keen supporter of the arts and served as chairman of Harrogate Theatre for 10 years.

After standing down from the county council, Mr Clark had moved back to Scotland to be closer to family.

Paying tribute to him, Cllr Richard Cooper, leader of Harrogate Borough Council said:

“By profession, Jim was an accountant and a very accomplished one too. His interests included the theatre, being an occasional amateur actor as well as an active supporter.

“I liked Jim enormously. A passionate individual, a proud father and grandfather, a dry with and a powerful advocate for his community. He will be greatly missed.”