North Yorkshire Council has direct-awarded a £350,000 contract to rebuild the collapsed Viaduct Terrace wall in Knaresborough, a day before the petition debate.
North Yorkshire Council has awarded a contract to rebuild the collapsed retaining wall at Viaduct Terrace in Knaresborough. Its estimated value is £350,000.
The decision was taken on Wednesday 23 September by the council’s Corporate Director of Environment and published the same day. That was the day before the Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Committee debated a residents’ petition demanding the repair.
The decision record says the council will “direct award an NEC4 ECC Option E Contract through Lot 2 of the 2026 CECF Framework for the reconstruction of the failed retaining wall at Viaduct Terrace, Knaresborough for an estimated value of £350,000”.
What the council has agreed
- A direct award. There was no fresh tender. The contractor comes from a framework the council already uses.
- A rebuild, not only a survey. The record describes the contract as being “for the reconstruction of the failed retaining wall”.
- Early Contractor Involvement. The contractor will help design the fix, manage the risks and carry out the ground investigations before building it.
- An estimate, not a fixed price. Option E is NEC’s cost-reimbursable contract, in which the client pays the contractor’s actual costs plus a fee and carries most of the financial risk.
The record does not name the contractor. It is recorded as a non-key decision and is not subject to call-in, so councillors cannot pause it.
Why the council skipped a tender
The council gives four reasons for going straight to a contractor:
- “the urgent need to reconstruct the collapsed retaining wall”
- the “complex approvals required from Network Rail and the Environment Agency”
- environmental and access constraints at the site
- the need for a contractor on board early to manage risk and “ensure timely delivery of a permanent solution in a high-profile location”
It also explains why it chose the cost-reimbursable form over the fixed-price options A to D. Those were “discounted due to significant project uncertainties, including third-party approvals, environmental constraints, and evolving construction requirements”.
That is consistent with what officers told the committee in the petition report. As we reported on 18 September, the council’s first attempt to buy a ground investigation drew no quotes at all, because of the risk of working next to the railway. The report said a contract for the rebuild “is in the process of being awarded”. It now has been.
What has not changed
The contract does not bring the start date forward, as far as the published record shows. The petition report said works “are expected to start in summer 2027 and be completed the same year”, “subject to the approval of funding” through a bid for corporate capital money.
The decision record does not say whether that bid has been made or approved. It also does not say whether the £350,000 covers the whole rebuild or only the first stages. Neither question is answered in the published papers.
Timing is fixed by the river. The petition report says in-river work is “generally undertaken between the 15 June and the 30 September” because of fish migration and spawning. This year’s window closes next Wednesday.
The debate on Thursday
The Area Committee met at 10am on 24 September at the Civic Centre in Harrogate. The petition, registered on 14 May with 610 provisional signatories, asked the council to begin stabilisation “before the onset of winter weather”.
The committee could not order the work itself. Its options were to refer the matter to scrutiny, write its own report to the decision maker, or note the report. The council has not yet published the minutes or a decision from the meeting, and we will report the outcome when it does.
The castle next door is running late too
The same meeting received an update on Knaresborough Castle, the subject of a separate petition in June. The report says the condition survey “has taken longer than originally anticipated”. The draft maintenance plan is now not expected until November 2026.
Work on site has continued in the meantime:
- vegetation removed from the castle keep and perimeter walls
- vegetation removal on the southern slope to the moat, from the week of 21 September
- designs to replace the wooden balustrades under review, with applications due by the end of September
What it means for you
- If you use Waterside, nothing changes this winter. The published timetable still points to work in summer 2027 at the earliest.
- If you signed the petition, the contract is the first concrete step the council has taken since it was registered. The start date still depends on a capital funding bid.
- To follow it, the decision and its contact, Tricia Richards, are on the council’s issue page.
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