Calls to grit more Harrogate district roads set to be rejected

Councillors look set to reject calls to grit more roads in the Harrogate district this winter.

North Yorkshire County Council, the highways authority, meets on Friday to agree its gritting programme from October 1 to April 30.

A report by Barrie Mason, assistant director for highways and transportation at the council, recommends councillors at the meeting approve the same arrangements as last year.

The council has a winter maintenance service budget of £7.5 million. Details of its gritting routes are here.

Motorways and trunk roads in the county, including the A1, A1(M), A66, A66(M), A64, A168 (Dishforth to Thirsk) and A19 (Thirsk to Crathorne) are gritted separately by National Highways.

Each year the council’s business and environmental services committee considers requests for amendments to its gritting routes.

Five have been received from the Harrogate district but Mr Mason said in the report:

“Currently there are no external routes upgrade requests that are supported by officers.”

The only proposed change this year is to include the north Northallerton link road in winter gritting when it opens “as this is commensurate with its network hierarchy”, the report said.

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The 5 roads requested for gritting

The council received five requests from residents, parish councils and local councillors in the Harrogate district to grit additional roads.

They are:

Old Barber in Bilton

A resident said when it snows and is icy it is “very dangerous for elderly people”.

West End, Blubberhouses

A resident said the location has a a number of farms and hamlets with steep gradients and should be gritted.

Wheatlands Road, Harrogate

A local councillor said it is a very steep road and residents “find themselves unable to get vehicles out of the road at all”.

Walton Park, Harrogate

A local councillor said “when it’s icy it’s sometimes difficult to walk across the road never mind traverse the pavements”, adding parents walking down hill to primary school are “at risk in the morning”.

The access road to Heyshaw village in Nidderdale

The parish council said the road “becomes impassable when very icy or snowy” and links to a dairy farm.