Calls for 20mph limits near schools are spreading to new areas of Harrogate as second petition is launched

Less than a week after residents behind the Oatlands Road Safety & Active Travel campaign launched a petition for a maximum speed of 20mph on roads in south and west Harrogate to improve road safety, more than 600 people have already signed in support.

This Thursday campaigners will take their case in person to members of North Yorkshire County Council’s area constituency committee at Harrogate Civic Centre.

Launched by residents Hazel Peacock and Dr Vicki Evans, the latest grassroots campaign in Harrogate concerned about safety near local schools follows recent accidents in which pupils have been injured..

The Oatlands petition posted on 38degrees website shares many of the the same aims as the Pannal Ash Safe Street Zones campaign.

The latter recently sent detailed proposals to North Yorkshire County Council to ask for Harrogate Grammar School, Rossett School, Ashville College, Rossett Acre and Western primary schools, to be covered by a 20mph zone with supporting infrastructure, such as safe crossing points.

The Oatlands petition shows the idea is spreading across Harrogate.

A spokesperson for Oatlands Road Safety & Active Travel said: “Road safety has been of particular concern from school leaders, parents and carers of school children and local residents in Oatlands and the wider Harrogate area for many years.

"A maximum speed of 20mph is now urgently needed to reduce road collisions, improve safety, reduce air pollution and create a better environment for walking, wheeling, cycling and scooting to schools, shops, workplaces and local amenities.”

Oatlands campaigners argue the scale of the road safety problems they are seeking to address is more substantial than some people my recognise.

The say more than 4,000 children and young people walk, cycle and travel by bus and car each day to the schools, colleges and early years settings in the area all of which are located on 30mph streets, including:

Oatlands Infant School

Oatlands Junior School

St John Fisher’s Catholic High School

St Aidan’s Church of England School

Harrogate FE College

Busy Bees nurseries at South Drive & Hornbeam Park

They point out that maximum speed limits of 20mph have been already delivered in other rural and urban areas of Yorkshire and the UK including Calderdale, Cornwall, Oxford, Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders, London and in Wales (coming in September 2023).

The positive-minded residents behind the two campaigns are confident change is not only necessary for the benefit of the community but achievable in a spirit of cooperation.

Last month saw Coun Keane Duncan, North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for highways and transportation, announce that vehicle-activated speed signs would be re-introduced on Pannal Ash Road shortly.

A meeting at Harrogate Grammar School’s Sixth Form Centre with North Yorkshire County Council attracted headteachers from nine different Harrogate secondary and primary schools and the chief executive of Red Kite Learning Trust, a multi-academy trust made up of 13 schools in North and West Yorkshire.

A new meeting on the issue has been arranged with headteachers and councillors next Monday, March 20.

For more information or to sign the Oatlands petition, visit:

www.you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/petition-for-a-maximum-speed-of-20mph-on-roads-in-south-and-west-harrogate-to-improve-road-safety-2=

For more information or to sign the Pannal Ash petition, visit:

www.ipetitions.com/petition/pannal-ash-safe-streets-zone