N Yorkshire to Spend Millions on Kex Gill Realignment
North Yorkshire County Council is set to spend millions on the realignment of the A59 at Kex Gill. Contractors are due to start clearing moorland next month.
In August this year, the BBC reported that the cost of the project had risen by £7 million in 18 months. The total cost is £69 million. The DfT is to pay £56 million, leaving North Yorkshire to pick up a £13 million bill.
The Cost of the Project is 430 Years’ Worth of Maintenance of the Current Route
Wikipedia says that N Yorkshire spent £1.6 million on maintenance of the Kex Gill road between 2008 and 2017, including clearing up landslips.
At that rate of expenditure, the £69 million cost of the diversion project is equivalent to 430 years of maintenance of the current route.
Environmental Impacts of Kex Gill Realignment
Huge greenhouse gas emissions are embedded in the construction materials.
Nidderdale AONB says that the project will cause a permanent and irreversible adverse environmental impact. They reluctantly accepted £590,000 for projects to enhance landscape and biodiversity.
WSP accept there will be permanent, non-reversible effects on local bat populations.
Carbon Reduction and 15 Minute Neighbourhoods
There is often rhetoric from North Yorkshire County Council about reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport, and building 15 minute neighbourhoods.
The Routemap to Carbon Negative for York & N Yorkshire contains very ambitious goals.
Gap Between Rhetoric and Actions
Unfortunately N Yorkshire does not put its money where its mouth is. Instead it is willing to spend millions of pounds on transport projects that facilitate long-distance driving, for example:
- it stumped up part of the £10 million cost of expanding J47 of the A1M and
- it is contributing £13 million to the Kex Gill realignment
Meanwhile, N Yorkshire is not prepared to commit a single pound of its own money to active travel projects in Harrogate.
For example, the money for proposed active travel projects on Victoria Avenue and A59 Knaresborough Road was provided by the DFT, with no contribution from N Yorkshire. These Active Travel Fund 2 schemes are not progressing.
In summary: no money for walking and cycling around Harrogate; millions on driving to Skipton.
To judge N Yorkshire’s priorities, look at what they spend their money on, not what they say.