Headteacher says section of major road in Harrogate should be reduced to 20mph to improve safety

North Yorkshire Council announced last week that speed limits will be introduced outside seven schools in Harrogate under plans for a “landmark” 20mph zone across Pannal Ash and Oatlands.

The move followed repeated calls from headteachers and parents to introduce lower speed limits around schools following high-profile collisions involving vehicles and pedestrians.

This included an incident earlier this year that left two schoolchildren in hospital.

The seven schools include Harrogate Grammar School, Rossett Acre Primary School, Rossett School, Ashville College, St Aidan’s Church of England High School, Oatlands Junior School and Oatlands Infants School.

The 20mph zone by Harrogate Grammar School will be introduced on Arthur’s Avenue and its surrounding side roads.

But the headteacher of Harrogate’s largest secondary school Neil Renton says the zone should be extended to include the busy B6162 Otley Road which is a key route in-and-out of town and currently has a limit of 30mph.

A statement was read out on behalf of Mr Renton at a meeting of councillors on the Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee on Thursday.

He said: “I absolutely support the landmark scheme put forward and hope this pioneering initiative will also include Otley Road.

"A large number of students leaving the site at start and end of school would make it entirely sensible to reduce the speed limit on Otley Road.

“Our staff see the need for this daily when supervising children.

"As a school we fully support reducing the speed limit for the safety of children in our community and hope you will also include Otley Road.”

Officers published a report ahead of the meeting that said due to national and council policy as well as “the volume of traffic” on Otley Road it would not be possible to introduce a 20mph speed limit.

Liberal Democrat councillor for Bilton Grange and New Park, Monika Slater, asked the council’s chief highways officer Melisa Burnham if she was aware of how other cities had “circumvented” national guidelines to introduce 20mph limits on A or B roads.

Ms Burnham said: “We do look at examples in best cases across the country, so yeah, the team certainly have the knowledge but whether it’s something we can look at for the specifics here I’m not sure.

"We do have that policy in place for a reason and we do have to adhere to it.

"It’s about that consistency across not just Harrogate but across the county as well.”