NORTON residents are being urged to report any concerns they have about the town’s roads directly to North Yorkshire County Council.

Members of the town council met with officers from the council’s highways department to raise a range of long-standing issues regarding areas of Norton.

They included parking issues in Wood Street, town entrance signs, standing water at the corner of Springfield Garth and traffic calming in Welham Road. Councillors also raised concerns about Commercial Street, including double yellow lines with the corner of Plum Street and standing water on both sides of the road. A request was also made for the pedestrian guard rail to be renewed at the corner of Commercial Street and Wold Street and bollards installed to prevent parking on the grass verge.

Members were told by area maintenance manager Peter Wilson that the North Yorkshire highway network was maintained using a traffic light system to monitor the condition of roads and pathways.

With extra funding being made available from central government maintenance on highways classed as being “amber light” improvement work would be a priority for improvement.

and It was hoped that this would mean Church Street was a high priority. Mayor Councillor Ray King said officers had stressed that all road and foot-way defects should be reported online by as many people as possible, as this then made the officials based at County Hall more aware of problems. “The more people that report issues, the more ammunition we have to get these issues sorted,” he added.

Coun Jonathan Gray added: “This is something we can all to and if we keep pestering them hopefully action will be taken.”

The council’s new deputy mayor, Coun Antony Croser said he had reported potholes at various locations in Norton and within two to three days they had been filled in.

“The process is very simple and only takes a couple of minutes to complete,” he added.

However, Coun David Lloyd-Williams said it as disappointing that the responsibility now lay with members of the public rather than with the county council’s own officers.

“Church Street certainly needs a repeat complaint putting in - the state of the road is so bad if there is a flash rainfall it could lead to skidding and cause an accident there,” he added.

Coun Di Keal added: “I was told 18 months ago that Church Street was a high priority and next on the list and still nothing has been done.”Anyone who would like to report a highway issue can do so at northyorks.go.uk