A Boroughbridge resident has called on North Yorkshire Council to make “urgent” improvements to a local road.

The man, who wished to remain anonymous, lives on Roecliffe Lane and told the Stray Ferret he has spent the last year campaigning to have the road resurfaced.

He said he and other local residents have issued “over a decade of complaints” to the council to resurface the road, as well as requested traffic-calming measures to make it safer, but are yet to see anything come to fruition.

Following a recent petition organised by the man and signed by Roecliffe Lane residents, he said the same recurring issues became “abundantly clear”:

“Several residents’ houses along the road shake whenever HGVs, buses, and often even cars, drive over the potholes next to them.

“This is our personal number-one issue and has at times caused deep regret moving to the street.

“We have had to endure over a year of it so far since moving in, our bed shaking most mornings when HGVs start driving the road in the early hours, doors juddering in frames, our baby’s rooms’ wardrobe rattling, the timber frame of the house creaking and more.

“Even people that visit notice, because the kitchen floor vibrates and the glasses in the cupboard clink. The council have been made aware of this multiple times.

“Several residents also commented about needing to repair their vehicles and bicycles from broken suspension and burst tyres. An elderly lady I spoke to had also fallen off her bike from a pothole.”

The noise from traffic can also be alarmingly loud and frequent, and speeding is a big issue along the road, he added.

The road was in ‘poor’ condition back in 2013. Pic: fixmystreet.

Now, he is proposing a “resident-first rethink”. He said:

“What worked for it when it was originally built is clearly not working for its residents now with increased housing, traffic and HGVs.

“It needs resurfacing urgently. It needs traffic-calming measures putting in place to reduce the thousands of noisy vehicles per day, and mitigations for the frequent HGVs.”

He also suggested the council implement new speeding enforcements to “protect the residents and their children from the up-to-81mph speeding vehicles.”

Roecliffe Lane in 2023.

‘Resurfacing is in our programme’

In response to the concerns raised, Melissa Burnham, highways area manager for North Yorkshire Council, told the Stray Ferret:

“Resurfacing of Roecliffe Lane is included in our programme for 2024/25. Once dates are confirmed, we will ensure the local community are aware.

“The local Highways team are also aware of the concerns raised and are liaising with North Yorkshire Police regarding enforcement.”

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Will enough of the pots of money for pothole repairs announced by the government find its way to sorting out Sharow’s unresolved road issues?

The village near Ripon has 195 potholes of varying dimensions along 300 metres of Sharow Lane — its principal throughfare — and New Road.

When Prime Minister Rishi Sunak cancelled the HS2 high speed rail project and promised to use the billions saved on solving the nation’s persistent pothole problems, Sharow resident and former parish councillor James Thornborough initially felt that his lobbying on the issue would finally reap reward.

But the long-time road and environmental campaigner now believes that his village could be overlooked as the re-directed HS2 is spent on other locations across North Yorkshire.

Spending of £630,000 to solve nearby Ripon’s long-running rocky road issues around Market Square looks a certainty, but Mr Thornborough has already spotted the potential get-out clauses that would enable North Yorkshire highways to make a last-minute swerve around Sharow’s resurfacing request.

The potholes run the length of New Road

An email sent to him last month by Barrie Mason, North Yorkshire’s assistant director for highways and transportation said:

“The Highways Capital Annual Programme for 2024/25 was recently approved. The roads in Sharow were not included in this programme, however, North Yorkshire Council has been awarded additional funding as part of the government’s Network North funding.

“We are currently in the process of developing an updated programme for 24/25 which will outline how this additional funding will be spent.

“Both New Road and Sharow Lane are being considered for this additional programme in 24/25. It is the intention that the updated programme will be finalised and formally approved in late January 2024.”

‘So many false dawns’

For Mr Thornborough, it’s the words ‘being considered’ which gives him most concern. He told the Stray Ferret:

“There have been so many false dawns on this long and bumpy journey and I currently feel pessimistic rather than optimistic, but have fingers crossed.”

He believes that the on-going situation is unsustainable and pointed out:

“All we are getting is reactive repairs to an increasingly worsening situation

“The current default of filling every new pothole does not constitute ‘corrective action’. Corrective’ action requires a sustainable solution and filled in Sharow potholes barely survive three months.”

Sharow Lane, where temporary-fix repairs have been made to the deteriorating road surface

Mr Thornborough added:

“New Road and the top of Sharow Lane bear manifest evidence of a failed defect strategy. At last count 195 repaired pot holes spanned 300 metres of highway. No other road section in the region bears evidence of such wholesale degradation. Driving over the road surface is a ‘bone shaker’.

“The North Yorkshire highways director has conceded repairs amounting to £200,000 are needed. To date that sum has never received capital award, despite the appalling condition. Intervention is required.

“In the case of Sharow, future tarmac repairs will only survive if the road is returned to a level surface. Highways engineers will need to complete a graded mechanical scrape followed by a new tarmac top. North Yorkshire Highways have no other option because they have admitted that the road surface is so decrepit that it will not support ‘dressing’ with chippings.”

Harrogate’s Victoria Avenue will be closed overnight for two nights this week as roadworks are carried out.

The road will be closed from 6pm until 11pm on Wednesday (May 24) and Thursday (May 25).

Parking bays on Victoria Avenue will also be suspended.

The move comes as North Yorkshire Council’s highways department is set to carry out work on the road.

It will see potholes filled on the street.

According to the council’s roadworks map, the authority will “renew 20 patches” as part of the work.

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The new North Yorkshire Council is beginning its annual surface dressing programme — but it doesn’t include any roads in the Harrogate district.

Hundreds of miles of roads across England’s largest county are to be treated this spring and summer.

The work makes roads more skid-resistant and waterproof. It also prevents potholes, and can extend the life of a road by up to 10 years.

Cllr Keane Duncan, North Yorkshire Council’s Conservative executive member for highways and transport, said £8 million of surface dressing would be carried out this year — £2.6 million more than last year.

But Harrogate is the only district in North Yorkshire not to be included in this year’s programme.

Work is due to begin mid-April in the Hambleton, Selby and Scarborough districts.

It is due to carry on in Ryedale and Richmondshire in May and finish in the Craven district in early June.

Cllr Duncan said:

“Careful prioritisation of works, additional investment and close cooperation with our contractors means we will be delivering an extra £2.6 million worth of surface dressing schemes this year, the equivalent of an extra 60 miles.”

In this year’s Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt awarded North Yorkshire £6.5 million from a £700 million fund to tackle potholes.

Details of North Yorkshire roadworks are available here.

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Two roads in Sharow are set to undergo a £200,000 resurfacing scheme.

North Yorkshire County Council has added the projects to its highways forward programme.

It will see New Road and Sharow Lane in the village resurfaced and reconstructed.

The county council is expected to start the schemes in the 2024/25 financial year.

It comes as the council faced criticism in December after it was revealed repairs to Sharow’s roads were not included in next year’s capital schemes.

Residents in the area have previously told the Stray Ferret that The ‘shocking state’ of roads in the village is preventing motorists from going green.

James Thornborough, who lives in the village, said:

“The road surfaces are in such a shocking state, that it is not safe to drive on them in smaller vehicles that use less fuel and produce fewer emissions.”

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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 County Council has revealed it does not use any council tax revenue on road repairs, despite it being among residents’ top concerns.

The authority’s highways executive member, conservative councillor Keane Duncan, highlighted the decision to focus its spending on other areas after hearing further complaints about the parlous state of roads from elected community representatives.

The authority has recognised for more than a decade that it faces a road repairs backlog running into hundreds of millions of pounds and has responded by prioritising routes.

In response to recent complaints, cllr Duncan has started a tour of the county’s 89 electoral divisions.

Ripon councillor Andrew Williams said cllr Duncan should invite North Yorkshire’s MPs to join him on his “state of the roads tour”.

He said:

“Pressure needs to be borne at government level as well to increase the settlement the county.”

Cllr Williams said some of the savings identified in local government reorganisation should be used for the repair of roads, which was residents’ number one complaint.

He added it would be of concern to residents that none of the council tax they paid was being used for highways maintenance:

“I think they equate the council tax they are paying and the state of the roads.

“I think if we are identifying £67m of savings across the county, some of those need to be invested in our highway network. ”

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Scarborough councillor Tony Randerson said he had spent years pressing the council for some roads to be resurfaced, but ones in certain areas, such as Scarborough and Selby, appeared to be lower on the priority list to those in the Harrogate and Knaresborough.

He said:

“Becoming a unitary authority is not going to be good for places like Scarborough and Selby, and Eastfield particularly, because it is difficult enough now to get the necessary services. What’s it going to be like when it becomes ruled through Northallerton?”

The authority’s highways executive member, Councillor Keane Duncan, said during the recent election campaigns, residents’ road maintenance concerns had been among the leading issues raised on the doorstep.

He said:

“We have a network of 8,500km of surfaced road. Very roughly, with the budget we’ve got we can treat 300km annually, through a combination of surface dressing, resurfacing and reconstruction.”

Cllr Duncan said the government road repairs settlement for the county had been fixed at £40m for the next three years by the Department of Transport.

 “We currently do not supplement or support that £40m settlement with local council taxpayer money. None of the council taxpayers to North Yorkshire County Council goes into that road maintenance.

“Clearly, £40m this year will not deliver the same as what £40m would deliver in future years, so what I am trying to do is to ascertain – and obviously we have a very difficult financial climate – what we can do to get the same bang for our buck in future years. as this year, and exploring those opportunities.”

A ‘jumble of traffic lights’ at the four-way junction linking the Morrisons Supermarket site with the Ripon to Harrogate Road, Moorside and Quarry Moor Lane, is causing confusion for motorists that may lead to accidents.

That’s the conclusion of Ripon City Council, which is calling for the numerous sets of lights to be replaced by a single roundabout.

Speaking at the July full meeting of the council, leader Andrew Williams, said:

“We have recently had two serious accidents at this junction and it’s just fortunate that neither of them involved fatalities.

“We have a jumble of traffic lights and lanes at this junction – some for vehicles turning in to Morrisons, some for them turning out and, adding to the confusion, there are also turns for Moorside and Quarry Moor Lane.

“The junction would be a lot safer if it were served by a roundabout.”

Fellow councillors were in agreement and the call to North Yorkshire for the roundabout will go alongside a request for further road re-surfacing in and around Ripon city centre.

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The potholes have gone from Princess Road

North Yorkshire highways bosses have often had a rough ride when it comes to concerns raised by city councillors about potholed roads, but there was praise for them at the council meeting, as members said they were happy with the resurfacing work carried out on St Mary’s Gate, Minster Road and Princess Road.

Councillor Pauline McHardy said:

“A good job was done by the contractor employed by Harrogate Borough Council to resurface Cathedral Car Park and make the spaces wider and North Yorkshire has done a similarly good job with its recent resurfacing work.”

It was, however, agreed that there is still a long way to go before Ripon is rid of its pothole problems.

Cllr Williams, who was elected onto the North Yorkshire authority in May has taken senior officers and Cllr Keane Duncan, the newly appointed executive member for highways and transportation, on guided tours of the city’s uneven streets.

It is hoped that  money can be allocated  in forward budgets for repair and renewal works to be carried out.

Cllr Williams, pointed out:

“We visited a number of problem areas, including the four roads around Market Square, Dallamires Lane and Blossomgate and I explained that the people of Ripon would like to have all of them brought up to the standard of the newly-resurfaced roads that we now have in the city”

Boroughbridge Town Council has called on North Yorkshire County Council to prioritise repair work on Roecliffe Lane.

The council has described the pot holed-road as an “eyesore” and a “hazard” and say it has been like this for several years.

The road is frequently used by motorists heading into the town centre. It is also part of Sustrans’ ‘Ways of the Roses’ long distance cycle route.

The town council has been lobbying senior members at the county council, which is the highways authority, for two years ago but is yet to receive a formal date when repairs can begin.

Today, the county council responded to the Stray Ferret to say it is looking to add it to a list of planned works for next year.

A spokesperson for the town council said:

“Boroughbridge Town Council remain deeply concerned about the condition of the surface of Roecliffe Lane in Boroughbridge. We are pushing hard at executive level at North Yorkshire County Council to get the required action taken and will continue to do so.

“We have formally requested the remedial action required to be prioritised ahead of a large list of other road improvement programmes North Yorkshire County Council are working their way through.

“We are very much aware of complaints from residents about the road which makes us fight even harder for the required corrective action.”

The town council added that the road does “not reflect Boroughbridge in a good light”.

Karl Battersby, corporate director for business and environmental services, said:

“North Yorkshire is England’s largest county with 5,753 miles of roads, and our teams work hard throughout the year to maintain a safe, efficient road network.

“We have listened to the concerns raised by Boroughbridge Town Council and agree that repair work will be needed and a scheme is to be included in our Forward Programme. Although it is not included in our planned works for the current financial year we are looking at our budget and the options we have to deliver a scheme as soon as possible after that.”

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Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Harrogate’s potholes worse than Cairo

Might I suggest that North Yorkshire County Council either furthers its skills in excavation or takes classes in road repairs.

I return from Cairo, Egypt regularly to visit my home town and many of the roads are a disgrace. St Mark’s Avenue, to name but one. I dare say many are in far worse states than the roads here in Egypt, and ours are bad.

I have watched St Mark’s Ave become like a major dig for some Harrogate archaeological treasure.

Please direct money, repairing many of the roads, to keep cars from becoming premature jalopies and saving the elderly from accidents who will then need emergency repairs, while crossing treacherous roads.

Harrogate should be beautiful and well kept, everywhere.

Janice Walker, Heliopolis, Cairo

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Harrogate needs flexible travel choices

I write this as someone who visits old friends in Harrogate regularly, with a flexible approach to travel choices, since I might ‘step off a train’ at Skipton, Kirkstall Forge, York or Leeds, and then get a bus, train or cycle (there’s a neat connection option Headingly-Kirkstall Forge this way – less good uphill though).

So to hear the rumblings about loss of late and early trains with Northern makes me wish that there was scope for a formal deal with the 36 and Transdev’s Harrogate Buses. As a more flexible traveller, I’ve done this mix & match a few times, when an event in Leeds ended in the evening ‘hole’ in the train service, or after the last train.

So Alex, (boss at Starbeck) how might the deal work, no handy train, eg with a through ticket for an early Leeds-London service or similar, then show your rail ticket and pay £1 to use the 36? Some might even switch for more trips?

Of course the deal might work even better with a public bike hire scheme in Leeds and Harrogate – less than five minutes on a bike gets you from Leeds Bus Station to Leeds City Rail Station, and two-wheels in Harrogate on a bad day is practically immune to traffic jams, or allows me to cut over from Bilton to Starbeck with the ‘short cut’ to catch a train for York (and its cheaper too with fares pricing).

From a bike you’d be shocked at what you’ll see drivers doing as you ride past – I saw an estate agent doing paperwork on a clip board balanced on the steering wheel as she slowly drove along in the queue and mobile phone use is as bad as it ever was, despite the more severe penalties

So instead of Northern also having the expense of running a separate bus (or several?) for those trains, work with the local bus service, and perhaps an eight-seater to deal with stations just too far away from the bus route (perhaps Pannal-Headingley?) and the smaller number of passengers for those connections?

I last owned a car 46 years ago, but for nearly five years have been able to drive a near-new electric car whenever I need to, but in that time my total spending on ‘motoring’ has been less than £200, and the wide choice of other options isn’t coloured by that ton or two of 4-wheeled indulgence that I’m paying for 24/7, but the surveys show sits idle for over 22 hours in every 24, easily costing £12-£20 per day in finance, insurance, servicing, depreciation.

Many poorer households have worked out that it’s cheaper to get a taxi to get home with their weekly shopping, and use buses (less than £2 per day unlimited travel with a bus pass) where they have worked out exactly how to get around with. Its an even better deal once you’re old enough for a bus pass, and drive a lot less.

Dave Holladay, Glasgow

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.