Coun Don Mackenzie column: How council teams have shown their true grit during winter

The Department for Transport announced on January 30 that the county council’s bid for funding of £56m to re-route the A59 trans-Pennine road at Kex Gill on to a more stable alignment has been approved.

Construction work on the three-mile-long new road is expected to take up to 18 months. Once completed, regular closures of the road caused by landslips at this location, which cause lengthy diversions via Otley and Ilkley, will be avoided in future.

The last few weeks have reminded us of the challenges of winter. Our gritting teams have had to deal with periods of heavy snow in a Covid-safe manner. As in 2018 when we faced the Beast from the East, we are likely to see the cost of our winter service exceed its £7m budget.

Periods of heavy snow were interspersed by rain, which washed away the salt spread earlier, so we had to grit again. Very low temperatures meant that salt spread rates had to be raised. Approaching 50,000 tonnes of salt have been spread on our roads between Christmas Eve and mid-February. We started the winter service last October with 55,000 tonnes of salt in our barns and thanks to good procurement and a reliable supplier in Boulby, our stocks remain sufficient.

I pay tribute to our gritting teams and to the 106 farmers who help us to keep our main roads open at all times and to provide a winter service second to none.

After two significant spells of heavy snowfall and very low temperatures, milder weather was introduced by Storm Christoph, which brought an even greater challenge – flooding. There were road closures in many parts of the county during the second half of January. Hard work and improved defences meant that domestic properties were largely spared, but it was a close-run thing in Malton. Selby district was badly affected with Cawood Bridge still closed as this report is compiled. Work to re-open the A19, closed by flooding a year ago, continues. The expected completion date remains June 20.

A total of £31m has been awarded to our three travel gateway schemes in Harrogate (£7.8m), Selby (£17.5m) and Skipton (£5.8m) as part of the Government’s Transforming Cities Fund. These projects will transform roads and public areas around rail and bus stations in the three towns. Public consultation on the schemes started on February 24 and will last four weeks.

In Tranche 2 of the Department for Transport’s Active Travel Fund, the county council has made a successful bid for £1.011m to be used to create four cycle paths – two in Harrogate, one each in Knaresborough and Whitby. All four are expected to be delivered by March 2022.

I am pleased to report that the works on the £9.8m scheme to improve reliability and capacity of the rail line between Harrogate and York were completed just before Christmas, on time and just under budget. The project, which involved track and signalling upgrades, was funded by the YNY LEP and by the county council using parking surpluses.  

The contract for phase four of the county council’s Superfast North Yorkshire project was signed in December. Valued at more than £14m, this latest investment in high quality broadband expansion will connect up almost 16,000 households and businesses, taking the total number of properties to benefit from our project to well over 200,000. The successful bidder is Quickline Communications. Whilst the technology used in the first three phases was fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premise (FTTP), this latest phase involves wireless connections.

The county council is a major partner in the Mobile Access North Yorkshire consortium, which will investigate how latest 5G technology can benefit rural communities, especially those with poor mobile coverage. Coverdale in Richmondshire has been chosen for an initial pilot and a planning application for a 5G mast was approved unanimously by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority this month.

North Yorkshire County Council has now invested over £100m in the county’s digital infrastructure since 2012.