North Yorkshire Council has rejected requests to reduce the speed limit on some main roads outside schools in Harrogate to 20mph.

A report due before Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for highways, will recommend creating a 20mph zone outside schools in the Pannal Ash and Oatlands area of the town.

The council announced plans for the “landmark” zone in September following a safety campaign by residents, councillors and schools.

The proposed area for the new zones included seven Harrogate schools. These are Harrogate Grammar School, Rossett Acre Primary School, Rossett School, Ashville College, St Aidan’s Church of England High School, Oatlands Junior School and Oatlands Infants School.

It included roads such as Arthurs Avenue, Oatlands Drive, Yew Tree Lane and Cromwell Road.

But it now appears main routes Leeds Road, Wetherby Road, Otley Road, Hookstone Road, Hookstone Drive, York Place and Leadhall Lane will not be included in the plan.

A map of the 20mph areas in Pannal and Oatlands. Picture: NYC.

Neil Renton, headteacher at Harrogate Grammar School, told the council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee in September he hoped Otley Road — where students enter the school — could be reduced to 20mph.

Read more:

• Harrogate Grammar School head says 20mph zone should include Otley Road
• Headteachers unite to support 20mph speed limit near Harrogate schools

But the report due before Cllr Duncan on December 18 says the main roads were identified as either “strategic distributor” or “main distributor” roads.

It added:

“Practically given the recognised role in the strategic network and their function to carry high volumes of traffic between primary destinations it is not considered appropriate to implement physical traffic calming features and an associated speed reduction to 20mph.”

Meanwhile, the council said Leadhall Lane “does not have identified destination points such as schools, shops or sports centre” and a 20mph limit would be “difficult to achieve”.

‘Incredibly disappointed’

Christopher Harrison, headteacher at Oatlands Infant School, said he was “incredibly disappointed” by the plans.

The school caters for pupils between the ages of four and seven.

Mr Harrison said he hoped the council would reconsider its proposals and reduce the speed limit on Hookstone Road from 30mph to 20mph.

He said:

“As headteacher of Oatlands Infant School, I am incredibly disappointed by the decision to keep Hookstone Road at 30mph. 

“We have a healthy, active school community who love to walk, cycle and scooter to school alongside Hookstone Road on a daily basis. 

“We worry that the current speed limit of 30mph is not safe enough for our children, and that a reduction to 20mph would enable more families to travel to school in safety. We hope that North Yorkshire Council reconsider this decision with our youngest, most vulnerable members of our community in mind.”

Otley Road

Hazel Peacock, of the Oatlands Road Safety and Active Travel Campaign, said the plans did not go far enough and urged the council to include the roads in the proposals.

She said:

“For the safety and well-being of the 9,000 school children and the wider community in Oatlands and Pannal Ash we urge North Yorkshire Council to reconsider the inclusion of Hookstone Road, Hookstone Drive, Leadhall Lane, part of Leeds Rd (A61), Otley Rd (B6162), Wetherby Road (A661) and York Place (A6040) as 20mph in the Harrogate (south and west) 20mph Speed Limit review to be considered by Cllr Keane Duncan, North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for highways and transportation and mayoral candidate, on Monday 18th December.

“Without the inclusion of Hookstone Road, Hookstone Drive, Otley Road and part of Wetherby Road specifically only five of the nine schools in the zone will be fully covered with 20mph roads immediately surrounding them; leaving St John Fishers Catholic High School and Willow Tree Primary School on 30mph roads and a combination of 30mph and 20mph in the case of Harrogate Grammar School and Oatlands Infant School.

“Considering people hit by a vehicle at 20mph are around five times less likely to be killed than at 30mph (Transport for London data) and that 16 children are killed or seriously injured in road crashes every week on their way to or from school (Public Health England), it is clear why the inclusion of these roads as 20mph matters.

“We hope Cllr Duncan will include them to prioritise the safety and well-being of the school children and members of the community as has been done on ‘main roads’ by other local authorities, in many including nearby Otley, Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester, Glasgow, London, rural villages in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.”

The scheme is estimated to cost the council £200,000.

The authority has recommended proceeding to consultation on traffic regulation orders for the areas proposed to be reduced to 20mph.

A decision will be made on the recommendation at next week’s meeting.

Councillors have rejected a claim that the decision to undertake a six-month review into speeding was based on insufficient evidence about the benefits of 20mph zones.

At a specially arranged meeting in Northallerton yesterday, Andy Brown, Green Party councillor for Aire Valley, requested a “call in” of the Conservative executive’s decision to begin the review into how it tackles speeding across North Yorkshire.

The executive said the review will lead to a speed management strategy and a rolling pipeline of safety improvement schemes, but it fell short of the demands of campaigners who want widespread 20mph speed limits implemented as soon as possible.

Cllr Brown said a report that underpinned North Yorkshire Council’s decision to undertake the review underestimated the benefits of 20mph speed limits and overestimated how difficult they are to implement.

He said:

“This is not a political issue, go to Cornwall and the Conservatives there got themselves elected and promised 20mph zones where residents support it. We should be thinking about this whatever our politics are.”

The 20’s Plenty campaign has the backing of more 150 parish councils, and campaigners met at County Hall in Northallerton yesterday with several making passionate pleas about why they want action on speeding now.

A statement was read out on behalf of Pam Fawcett, who said she had lived in Beverley for more than 50 years but is now worried about the speed of traffic. She said:

“I’m afraid to cross the road in the village and I must get somebody else to collect my pension. I have great-grandchildren living in the village, they must cross the road to get the school bus and I’m genuinely frightened they’ll be hit by a speeding car.”

Read more:

• Counci’s 20mph review ‘kicking can down the road’
• Trial scheme will ban school run cars from Harrogate street

Both the Green Party councillor for Ouseburn, Arnold Warneken, and Liberal Democrat councillor for Knaresborough East, Hannah Gostlow, queried why the report rejected calls to have a 20mph pilot in Harrogate and Knaresborough despite it being backed by local councillors. Cllr Gostlow said:

“Where was the consultation regarding local communities? We can’t just mention active travel in our strategies, we have to take action. Our goal won’t be reached by words alone.”

However, several Conservative councillors spoke to say they backed the review, including the councillor for Bentham and Ingleton, David Ireton, who said:

“This is not about whether we like speed limits, it’s about whether the executive’s decision was made correctly. I do believe they had sufficient evidence in front of them. I feel that it was a sound decision that was made.”

Alan McVeigh, the council’s head of highways network strategy, defended the council’s approach to speeding in the chamber, as did Cllr Keane Duncan, the Conservative executive member for transport, who spoke through a video link.

Mr McVeigh said:

“We’ve heard a lot, quite rightly, about the benefits of 20mph zones. None of that is in dispute. But a one size all default risks imposing speed limits on communities that may not want them.”

Cllr Duncan that parish councils will still be able to ask for 20mph zones and the strategy should speed up the process for these requests. He added:

“We will be communicating with all parish councils in North Yorkshire to explain the policy and how they can shape proposals. I’ll make sure every councillor gets that in advance. We’re working with communities and I think we can make a positive difference over time.”

Councillors ultimately voted by nine to six to back the executive’s initial decision to undertake the review.