Harrogate's school street still has no enforcement camera, and Selby goes first in early 2027. Councillors are now writing to the council leader.
Harrogate councillors are writing to the leader of North Yorkshire Council about the Oatlands school street. They say the council’s approach to an enforcement camera “risks undermining the scheme”.
The school street closes Beechwood Grove, outside Oatlands Junior School, to most traffic at drop-off and pick-up. Volunteers run it at the barriers. The council has said a camera will come, but not before its first camera enforcement site in Selby is running. Selby is about 25 miles south-east of Harrogate. The council now expects that site to start in early 2027.
The decision to write was taken at the Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Committee on 24 September. The draft minutes were published on 1 October.
What the school street is
North Yorkshire’s first school street began as a pilot on 6 September 2023, according to the council’s own announcement at the time. It was made permanent by a traffic order that came into force on 7 February 2025.
The order bans motor vehicles from the whole of Beechwood Grove, from its junction with Hookstone Road:
- Monday to Friday, in school term time only
- from 8.30am to 9am
- and from 3pm to 3.45pm
Residents and school staff with permits are exempt. So are blue badge holders, emergency services, school transport and deliveries to homes on the street.
What the campaigners asked
The Oatlands and Pannal Ash Road Safety and Active Travel Campaign put a statement to the committee. It said 93% of the school’s pupils now walk, wheel or cycle there, and that 360 children aged 7 to 11 attend.
The campaign said the council had promised a camera as the long-term way to enforce the closure. Its account of the delays, as set out in the minutes:
- in spring 2025 the council said the camera would follow a three-month trial in Selby that summer
- by July 2026 the Selby trial had still not started
- the campaign then asked for Beechwood Grove to become the trial site instead
- the council said Selby remained its priority, now delayed to early 2027
The campaign asked why the trial could not be switched to the school.
What the council said
The council’s highways team gave a written answer. Its first camera site is the yellow box junction at Gowthorpe in Selby. That was the location named in its application to the Department for Transport for the powers.
The council said progress “has taken longer than originally anticipated, primarily due to challenges associated with the procurement process”. It now expects Gowthorpe to be running in early 2027. A three-month review will follow.
When the council first consulted on Gowthorpe, in September 2023, it said enforcement there would start “from early next year” if the application was approved. That was early 2024.
There was one piece of good news in the answer. The council said its bid to the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority for cameras at school street sites had been successful. It is waiting for details of when the money will be released. After Gowthorpe, it said, school streets “will be given priority where they meet the relevant operational and policy criteria”.
What councillors decided
The Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith, attended the meeting. The minutes record that he “agreed that progress should be faster”. He asked for a copy of the council’s answer.
Councillors said they were disappointed at the pace. They resolved to write to the executive member, the corporate director and the leader of the council. The letter will ask for “a more pragmatic delivery solution”, including interim measures to support the volunteers until a permanent arrangement is in place.
The other letter: Starbeck’s air quality monitor
The committee agreed a second letter, about Starbeck. A public statement to the meeting raised barrier down times at the level crossing, parking pressure and air quality on the High Street.
The council’s environmental health team said it has bought an automatic real-time monitor for nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter at the crossing. It is “currently at the Highway depot at Leeming Bar awaiting installation”. Leeming Bar is about 20 miles north of Harrogate. Anti-idling signs will only be looked at once the monitor is in and producing data. The team said the timing was outside its control.
Councillors will write to the corporate director and executive member about the delay. They want a detailed update, the expected timescale and what is being done to get the monitor installed.
Also at the meeting
- Beech Grove and Victoria Avenue. Works to remove the temporary islands and reinforce the ban on driving straight ahead are now programmed for January 2027. Victoria Avenue is on the council’s county-wide list of possible future camera sites.
- West of Harrogate 20mph, phase 2. The council said it would share the consultation programme with local campaigners “within the next fortnight”.
- King Edwin Park bus. Service 4 has always been paid for by the developer. The council said running it hourly would have used up that money by April 2027. Cutting it to every two hours secures it until April 2028.
- Viaduct Terrace, Knaresborough. The committee will receive a progress report at every meeting until the repairs are finished. Our story on the £350,000 contract has the detail.
The committee next meets on Thursday 26 November.
What it means for you
If you use Beechwood Grove at school times, the closure is in force now and nothing has changed. It is still enforced by the people at the barriers, not by a camera, and that will stay the case until at least 2027.
If you want to comment, the area committee takes written public statements before each meeting. The roads that are closed this month are on our Harrogate roadworks page.
Have your say