Anyone who has driven around the Harrogate district recently will have noted the poor state of the roads, with a prolonged spell of wet weather making the pothole problem worse.

But there are now hopes the situation could finally improve for road users after the government announced that £1.3m previously allocated for the rail scheme HS2 will be spent resurfacing roads in the area including in Knaresborough, Boroughbridge and Ripon.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak scrapped the northern leg of HS2 last year and pledged to use money intended for the scheme on improving transport in the north.

Today the Department for Transport has revealed which local authorities across Yorkshire will benefit from the latest tranche of funding for road resurfacing, which it says will result in £991 million in reallocated HS2 funding for the region.

Roads in the Harrogate district that will be resurfaced are below along with how much each set of works will cost:

• Park Row, Knaresborough £128,700.
• C262, Spofforth £111,540.
• Duck Hill, Ripon £130,000.
• Follifoot Lane, Spofforth £85,800.
• Green Lane, Harrogate £243,100.
• Kirkgate, Ripon £130,000.
• Lancaster Park Road, Harrogate £221,000.
• Roecliffe Lane, Boroughbridge £137,280.
• New Road, Sharow £143,000.
• Sharow Lane, Sharow £143,000.

Councils across Yorkshire will now be required to submit quarterly reports from June, announcing work which has taken place over three months.

The government says it means residents will be able to scrutinise the progress of the works as these reports will be published online.

Transport secretary Mark Harper said:

“We’re on the side of drivers, which is why this Government is getting on with delivering our plan to invest £991 million in Yorkshire and the Humber as part of the biggest-ever funding increase for local road improvements, made possible by reallocated HS2 funding.

“Alongside this unprecedented funding, which is already being used to improve local roads, we’re making sure residents can hold their local authority to account and see for themselves how the investment will be spent to improve local roads for years to come.”

Meanwhile, it was announced last month that North Yorkshire Council will receive £3.5m from HS2 to put on extra buses across 20 different routes.

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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.”