Stray Views: Turnout for this week’s local election ‘disgusting’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.
Why didn’t many residents in the district vote?
Where is the curious journalism that wants to know why nearly 70% of eligible residents in the Harrogate district could not raise themselves from their sofa to vote? Why are these people so disenfranchised that they can’t be bothered to put an X on a piece of paper and have an influence on the direction of their own lives? Why is it that I haven’t seen a candidate or an activist canvasing in my area since the EU referendum in 2016?
Did people really vote in numbers for the Liberal Democrats because of a strong ideological belief, was it because they had an inspiring manifesto at a local and national level or was it simply a protest vote from an electorate that will never vote Labour? The truth is no one knows because no one bothers to ask us!
Nobody won today, the political class has been an embarrassment for some time and continues hell bent on its race to the bottom in terms of performance, conduct and perception. Beyond this our town lost its council today and probably its unique identity as a result. The Tories will celebrate their success in taking control of the unitary council and will conveniently forget that an overwhelming majority didn’t actually vote for them at all. For that, us the electorate should be ashamed of our apathy, the low turnout was disgusting.
David, Killinghall Moor
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The wrong platform
Is it not possible for the London train to depart and arrive into Platform 1 at the main Station Concourse. Everyday railway customers struggle with their luggage up stairs or along the platform to queue for the 2 Lifts.
This does not give a good first impression of Harrogate and does little to help the railway customers.
Surely this can be sorted quickly within the busy timetable. Let’s put the travellers first.
Paul Lawrence, Harrogate
Whole of Harrogate’s Bogs Lane now to be resurfacedNorth Yorkshire County Council has agreed to resurface the whole of Bogs Lane.
Previously, the council said it would only lay fresh tarmac on the stretch of road from the Forest Lane junction of Knaresborough Road to Henshaw’s College. Work began last week.
The road, just off the main A59 Knaresborough Road, is in a busy residential area that has been affected by numerous new housing schemes.
However, following requests from resident Malcolm Binks and Starbeck Liberal Democrat councillor Philip Broadbank, the county council has now agreed to resurface the whole stretch of road.
Cllr Broadbank said that this will now include the section from Henshaw’s College to the low bridge that connects Bogs Lane to Kingsley Road.
He said:
“The road’s been in a very poor condition for a long time. It beggared belief the county council didn’t decide to do it until now.”
The councillor said the resurfacing work should be completed by the end of this week.
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Coming soon! New pothole machine to improve Harrogate district roadsNorth Yorkshire County Council has said it will use two new state-of-the-art machines to blitz potholes across the county this month.
The machines are able to fix the potholes through a technique called spray injection patching.
With this method, the machines clean and dry the holes then fill them with a cold bitumen compound to seal cracks. Finally, an aggregate is used to fill the hole.
The county council said in a press release yesterday that acquiring the machines would enable it to undertake “an extended programme of pothole repairs across many North Yorkshire neighbourhoods during March”.
It added “local communities will be informed of locations and anticipated dates for the work very shortly”.
The council was encouraged by a recent trial of the machines and believes they are a cheaper and quicker way to fill in potholes. It also said repairs can last longer.
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Conservative councillor Don Mackenzie, executive member for highways, said:
“The trials carried out were very successful and this is a great opportunity to repair more roads.
“This is good news for residents of North Yorkshire, spray injection patching is a much quicker process of repairing potholes and the repairs tend to last a lot longer.
“It offers a cost-effective way of repairing potholes whilst reducing the inconvenience to the travelling public. We have also secured the services of this specialist equipment later in the year.”
Resurfacing to begin on Monday at Ripon’s largest car parkParking spaces will be temporarily reduced in Ripon from next week while resurfacing work is carried out at the city’s biggest car park.
Work on the 193-bay Cathedral Car Park starts on Monday and is scheduled to be completed by February 11.
Signs say that over the three weeks, there will be ‘restricted parking’ available.
Other public car parks serving the city centre are at The Arcade, Market Place North (except on Thursdays) Victoria Grove, St Marygate and Marshall Way retail park.
Plea for wider bays
Before local company A. E. Duffield begins the £85,000 contract, Ripon City Council has reiterated its call for spaces on the car park to be widened to accommodate the larger vehicles that many people now drive.
At Monday evening’s city council meeting, members were told by town clerk Paula Benson that Harrogate Borough Council had not as yet responded to correspondence about the request for enlarged spaces.
It agreed to make further contact with Harrogate Borough Council after council leader Andrew Williams said:
“With the work due to start next week, we need an answer from them.”
The call for spaces to be increased in size came at the city council’s December meeting, when Councillor Pauline McHardy said:
“Modern vehicles are wider and with the current size of the spaces, people find it difficult to get in and out of their cars.”
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Cllr McHardy’s call for enlargement was seconded by Councillor Chris Davis, who told the meeting:
“The bays are narrow and I’ve often found it difficulty to find a parking space that my car will fit in.”
Councillors voted unanimously to make the request to Harrogate Borough Council.
Long and short stay
The Cathedral Car Park is used by drivers for long and short stays and in the contract notice for the work, Harrogate Borough Council said the site had become worn and hazardous to members of the public.
It added:
“Over the years the current surface of the car park has become pot-holed, with large areas of loose tarmac resulting in trip hazards to members of the public, and claims for vehicle damage.”
The contract is for a complete resurfacing of the car park, and to increase the number of parking spaces to 206, along with 10 disabled bays.
The council will also require the contractors to undertake trunking and ductwork in preparation for the installation of electric vehicle charging points.
Call for wider parking bays in Ripon to cater for larger cars
Ripon City Council has called for parking spaces at Cathedral Car Park to be widened to accommodate larger vehicles.
The city’s biggest car park is due to undergo resurfacing works costing £85,000 and Councillor Pauline McHardy called for parking bays to be enlarged as part of the upgrade.
Speaking at the December city council meeting, she said:
“Modern vehicles are wider and with the current size of the spaces, people find it difficult to get in and out of their cars.
“After the resurfacing work has been carried out, the bays should be enlarged.”
Cllr McHardy’s call for enlargement was seconded by Councillor Chris Davis, who told the meeting:
“The bays are narrow and I’ve often found it difficulty to find a parking space that my car will fit in.”
Councillors voted unanimously to support the request, which will be made to Harrogate Borough Council.
The 193-bay car park sits in view of the cathedral and is used by drivers for long and short stays.
Harrogate Borough Council, in a contract notice for the work issued this year, said the site had become worn and hazardous to members of the public.
It added:
“Over the years the current surface of the car park has become pot-holed, with large areas of loose tarmac resulting in trip hazards to members of the public, and claims for vehicle damage.”
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The contract is for a complete resurfacing of the car park, and to increase the number of parking spaces to 206, along with 10 disabled bays.
The council will also require the contractors to undertake trunking and ductwork in preparation for the installation of electric vehicle charging points.
Leadhall Lane in Harrogate to close for two weeksLeadhall Lane in Harrogate will close for two weeks later this month for resurfacing.
The works will begin on Thursday, November 11, until Wednesday, November 24, and will take place between 7.30am and 5.30pm.
North Yorkshire County Council is set to close the road in order to carry out resurfacing work.
The road connects Leeds Road with Burn Bridge and Pannal and is currently in a poor state of repair due to potholes.
Residents have been warned there may be periods when vehicle access will not be possible but pedestrian access will be maintained.
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Crackdown on utility companies that leave North Yorkshire roads in a poor stateA highways authority experiencing a huge cut in road maintenance funding has signalled its determination to crackdown on utility companies that fail to properly restore roads after digging them up.
A meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive this week heard shoddy reinstatement of roads by sewage, water, electricity, gas and communications firms was responsible for “well over half” of potholes across the country’s largest road network.
The meeting discussed ways to get utility firms to “sharpen their pencils” and improve performance.
One idea was to introduce road metering whereby firms would be charged according to the amount of time they spent on site, meaning putting right poor workmanship would prove more costly.
The Department of Transport announced this year North Yorkshire County Council would receive £37 million to maintain roads in 2021/22, £12.6 million less than the previous year. Whitehall bosses estimated the £16.5 million earmarked specifically for potholes in the county could repair 329,000 cavities.
The funding announcement came two years after the Department for Transport launched a consultation to help councils tackle the potholes by making utility companies ensure the safety of roads for up to five years. However, it has emerged the proposal has been postponed due to fears of creating “unintended consequences” for utility firms.
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Street Works UK, a trade association representing utility companies, has said the five-year rule would be unnecessary and that the sector’s roadworks performance is much better than local authorities.
The debate has also seen the RAC Foundation describe potholes as “the bane of road users’ lives” and call for utility firms to be held responsible for the quality of their road repairs.
‘Utility firms must be held to account’
Nevertheless, Councillor Stanley Lumley, a Conservative representing Pateley Bridge and chairman of the authority’s transport, economy and environment overview and scrutiny committee, told the executive there were clear variances in the condition of roads across North Yorkshire and utility firms needed to be held to account.
“It’s a great shame that we invest a lot of money in maintaining these roads and then a utility company can come along and do a poor reinstatement and that results in a bad reflection on the county.”
Councillor Don Mackenzie, a Conservative representing Harrogate Saltergate and the council’s executive member for access, said he believed well over half the county’s potholes were caused by poor remedial works following excavations. But he stressed only three per cent of the county’s principle roads were in need of repair.
“Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do to stop the utility companies breaking into our highways. They have a statutory right to access their equipment, replace or repair it.
“It is something that we must monitor very closely and is something that I personally am very concerned about. We shall ensure that we continue to improve the quality of those reinstatements.”
Cllr Mackenzie said the council had introduced a roadworks permits scheme a few years ago, which had generated funding to employ people to monitor utility firms’ work and led to financial penalties being imposed on utility companies for poor workmanship.
State of roads in Ripon comes under spotlightIndependent Ripon councillors have accused North Yorkshire County Council of getting its road repairs priorities wrong.
They have asked the highway authority to explain the rationale behind resurfacing rural lay-bys instead of repairing city centre roads.
Ripon City Council leader Andrew Williams told the Stray Ferret:
“Along a 16-mile stretch of road between Hawes and Leyburn, lay-bys have been re-surfaced to a very high standard, while many roads in Ripon are in desperate need of major work.
Pictured above is one of the recently re-surfaced lay-bys on the A684 Hawes to Leyburn Road and below is a section of Market Place East in Ripon
Barrie Mason, North Yorkshire County Council’s assistant director for highways and transportation, said:
“The improvement work to lay-bys is funded by the government’s Safer Roads Fund, which has the aim of reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on the county’s roads.
“The Safer Roads Fund can only be used on certain roads within the county which meet the strict government criteria and is not to be used for routine maintenance.
“We have a comprehensive programme of planned maintenance schemes based on annual surveys of the whole road network that has produced a long-term trend of improving road condition.
“Ripon Market Place is being considered for future funding within our forward programme for 2022/23.
“A number of the areas of most concern are associated with poorly performing utility reinstatements and we are seeking urgent action on these from the companies concerned.”
Cllr Pauline McHardy said:
“We want all roads in the county to be safe and it is my view that the four roads around Market Place and other parts of the city centre are a danger to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians, because of the state they are in.”
Her fellow city and Harrogate district council colleague, Sid Hawke, added:
“We keep asking for proper repairs to be done and while we wait, the road surfaces get worse and worse by the day.”
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For next year, Ripon is planning a major programme of events to celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee.
Mayor of Ripon, Cllr Eamon Parkin, said:
“I just hope that the roads in and around the city centre have been fixed by then.”
Harrogate garages see increase in pothole repairs despite lockdownGarages in Harrogate have said they are experiencing a rise in demand for pothole-related repairs despite the national coronavirus lockdown.
It comes as the government announced today £51 million in funding to repair roads in the Yorkshire and Humber region over the next year.
This is the second instalment of a national £2.5 billion “potholes fund”, which Chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed in last year’s Budget.
However, it seems there are plenty of holes for North Yorkshire County Council to fill locally.
The council currently has 781 potholes on its reporting system for Harrogate, Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge. Ripon and Masham have 175.
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While not all the reports require action from the council, those numbers can be a good indicator of the demand it is currently facing.
The recent cold weather has also caused more potholes. When water enters the road and freezes, it expands and creates holes in the surface. Traffic then exacerbates the problem.
Harrogate’s garages then deal with the consequences of damage caused by vehicles driving over potholes.
Finlay Bunce, the manager at Universal Tyres Harrogate, told the Stray Ferret that it recently repaired 10 cars on one day due to potholes:
“People should not be travelling as much but we are still seeing quite a few cars with pothole-related damage.
“One woman last week had only driven 160 miles in her brand new car when she drove over a pothole. She needed two new tyres.”
Sam Burton, manager of Just Tyres in Harrogate, said it had seen a 15% increase in pothole repairs since early January when the country went into lockdown. He said:
“We have had quite a few people complain about Otley Road in Harrogate. I drive down it regularly and it looks as if someone has lost control of a jackhammer. It all needs to be resurfaced.
“Some cars are so badly damaged as a result that we cannot even do a repair. Wagons and cars are driving all over the roads to avoid the holes.”
The five Harrogate streets that attract the most pothole reportsArthurs Avenue has more potholes reported than any other road in Harrogate, according to statistics from North Yorkshire County Council.
The avenue, which Harrogate Grammar School is situated on, had 17 potholes reported In the year April 1 2019 to March 31 2020.
Roads in the west of Harrogate appear to attract the most complaints.
Arthurs Avenue displays some of the scars from work on its surface.
The second most reported road for potholes was nearby Rossett Drive, with 12.
Another street in the vicinity, Pannal Ash Road, was joint third, along with Oakdale and Wayside Avenue, with 11.
The council, which is the highways authority for the county, supplied the figures after the Stray Ferret submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
