North Yorkshire Plans to Take Out Beech Grove LTN

North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) plans to take out the modal filters that turned Beech Grove into a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) and cycle route to town – but says it is working on new permanent measures.

The 18-month Experimental Traffic Order that created the LTN ends on 14th August 2022, and will not be made permanent, according to a local paper.

This means that Beech Grove will no longer be a quiet street, and a safe and pleasant cycle route into town. It will be opened up again to rat-running and corner-cutting motorists, charging along a residential and park street in an effort to shave a few seconds off their trips – at least until permanent measures are put in place.

Cabinet Member for Access Keane Duncan

This is the first major decision on active travel by new Cabinet Member for Access Keane Duncan, and it is a hugely disappointing one.

This was an excellent scheme that improved quality of life on Beech Grove, and made it a viable cycle route into town for all ages and abilities. It represents a terrible start to Councillor Duncan’s tenure.

Sum Total of Road Space Reallocation to Active Travel in North Yorkshire: Zero

During the pandemic, local authorities were instructed by the DfT to reallocate road space to walking and cycling. That duty was made permanent in updated Network Management Duty guidance.

Beech Grove was the only reallocation of road space to active travel in the whole of North Yorkshire. The fact that it is now being taken out represents a failure by NYCC to comply with its Network Management Duty, and a dismal record on active travel.

A Wider Package of Active Travel Measures

“Feedback from the trial will now be considered before a wider package of permanent measures to promote environmentally-friendly travel is drawn up and consulted upon in September.”

quote from the local paper article on beech grove

Unfortunately, that statement provides little reassurance. For years we have been told that positive change is just around the corner, and things will get better any time now.

It never happened until Beech Grove LTN was introduced, and now NYCC are to undo the only decent thing they have actually done in the last 10 years.

Failure on Oatlands Drive

When NYCC scrapped plans for a good scheme on Oatlands Drive in May 2021, they announced plans to commission an Oatlands Constituency Feasibility Study that was to start in Summer 2021. It has not happened and we are still waiting.

Removing a Scheme that Works in Favour of Vague Promises

The Beech Grove modal filters cost £10,000 – peanuts by highways standards. They were in place and working. To take them out is the wrong thing to do, and the promise of a wider package of permanent measures is too vague to be an adequate substitute.

NYCC have no track record of pursuing active travel projects in a professional and timely way – in fact, the opposite is true. Constantly shifting timetables – always being put back, never forward – mean that projects are delayed 3 months at a time, again and again and again. The cumulative delays add up to years of inaction.

Meaningful Alternatives

Meaningful alternatives to the Beech Grove modal filters would be likely to provoke more hostility than the present scheme. They could include:

• making Beech Grove one-way for motor vehicles and replacing the parking with a bi-directional cycle track
• creating a cycle track across West Park Stray
• creating cycle tracks down Otley Road to the Prince of Wales roundabout, and along West Park; this would involve removing parking on West Park

Response from Councillor Duncan

Councillor Duncan said:

‘I am committed to promoting active travel, and I am willing to see schemes through – even in the face of opposition. I have stated, for example, my commitment to Station Gateway.

No decision has been taken to ‘rip out’ the modal filters on Beech Grove. The trial period has reached its planned maximum length, and will now lapse. This gives time to work up the very best plan to connect the upcoming next phase of the Otley Road scheme with the town centre. The restrictions on Beech Grove are not being made permanent immediately, but it is possible (and likely) that there will be permanent measures brought in as part of a wider plan we’re pulling together.

Our aim is to consult on designs for Otley Road cycle lane at the same time as Beech Grove/Victoria Road. This will spell out exactly how everything fits together, and may well allow measures better optimised to promoting active travel than the current arrangement.’

cabinet member for access keane duncan

History of the Beech Grove Modal Filters

The modal filters on Beech Grove were put in in February 2021. A consultation was held from 18th February to 14th August 2021. NYCC then had a year to analyse feedback and make a decision.

Adjustments could have been made during the trial period. In this case that could have included:

• a one-way filter at the junction of Victoria Road and Otley Road, to prevent rat-running motorists using Victoria Road uphill, and
• allowing motor vehicles to go straight on from Beech Grove to Victoria Avenue, as part of the ATF2 scheme for Victoria Avenue

That is how the system is supposed to work.

The idea that a local authority should wait until the trial period expires, remove the scheme, then have a think about whether it worked or not, hold another consultation when it has only just had one, and perhaps put the scheme back again later – that is not the correct procedure.

Missing Link

NYCC is supposed to have a coherent plan to create a cycle route into town along Otley Road, Beech Grove, Victoria Avenue and Station Parade.

They have been failing to make progress for years, but at least we had one bit of it that made a really significant difference. Now they are removing it, which is a huge backwards step.

Even if progress is made on Otley Road, Victoria Avenue and Station Parade, Beech Grove is now a missing link.

It is difficult to find the words to express the degree of disappointment we feel in NYCC’s handling of this trial scheme.