'Road gritting system should be re-thought' (From Gazette & Herald)

'Road gritting system should be re-thought'

TOWN councillors at Kirkbymoorside are urging North Yorkshire County Council to re-think its system of gritting roads in icy conditions.

Members heard that the authority has a shortage of gritters in the northern Ryedale area but suggested that the highway department should operate a similar system to the county fire authority and move vehicles into places when and where they are needed.

Coun Barry Brook - himself a victim of the ice and now on crutches - said there had been a significant delay before some parts of the Kirkbymoorside area had been gritted which had resulted in a number of people suffering falls.

County Coun Val Arnold said the highway gritters had been working at full stretch, particularly concentrating on school bus routes. She said the highway depot at Kirkbymoorside was now having to cover a wider area than in the past.

Members said that a salt box in the Market Place had been empty at the time of the icy conditions.

The town council has put forward a list to the North Yorkshire County Council of ten potential sites for bus shelters including Vivers Place, junction of Kirby Mills and the A170 road, outside the Catholic church, Tontine House area, West End and others in the town centre.

The Kirkbymoorside family doctor practice is set to be allowed to dispense prescriptions for people living in excess of three miles from the town. The doctors told the council that it would result in a better service for patients and would help to develop facilities and patient care at the surgery. However, councillors Nigel Richardson and Sheila Ridley said they were concerned that it could affect the viability of Kirkbymoorside's only chemist business.

The cost of cutting the grass in the churchyard at All Saints is set to double from £1,400, the town council was told. Town clerk Robert Horne said the area was difficult to cut and, while some areas had been left uncut for ecological schemes to encourage the growth of wild flowers, it had resulted in complaints of the churchyard appearing untidy.

Coun Dr David Williamson said the grass was being cut more frequently now than in previous years. "There are wild flowers in the churchyard but there won't be if the contractor continues the present method of such regular cutting." The council agreed to increase its contribution to the church council by £100 to £1,500 for this year.

Yorkshire Housing Association is to investigate concerns that affordable homes in Kirkbymoorside are not being allocated to local people. "There is a general shortage of such housing in Ryedale," said Mr Horne.

A new housing development near Towlers chemists in the Market Place is to be named Green Dragon Yard, an old name for the area.

The town pound where stray livestock was housed generations ago is to be restored at a cost of £250 by a local farmer.

The next meeting of the Ryedale Five Towns Group of Helmsley, Kirkbymoorside, Malton, Pickering and Norton council is to be held on February 19.

The problem of noisey manhole covers in Kirkbymoorside is to be tackled by NYCC.

Updated: 10:16 Wednesday, January 22, 2003