Residents in Harrogate village alarmed over state of roads as 'potholes get larger and larger'
A Harrogate Advertiser reader has got in touch to highlight what is being called the “worst road in the Harrogate area”.
The reader, who took photographs of the situation, said that potholes were getting worse and worse on the High Moor Road out of North Rigton towards Harrogate.
"High Moor Road out of North Rigton towards Harrogate is in a terrible state,” the Harrogate Advertiser reader said.
"It is no longer a quiet country lane as it is used as a short cut to Leeds by the new housing estates in north Harrogate as well as a good few tractors and farm vehicles."
The reader said the highways authorities at North Yorkshire Council were aware of the road problems round North Rigton, which is located four miles southwest of Harrogate.
"Traffic people came out to inspect it in mid March,” said the reader.
"It was deemed so bad that it was only passable by single file traffic and a ‘temporary” set of traffic lights were put in place to only allow traffic in one direction at a time.”
The resident’s complaints illustrate the human side of recent figures which showed that a total of 18,181 severe highway defects were officially reported by the public to North Yorkshire Council between the 2023/24 and 2025/26 financial years.
During the initial 12 months, North Yorkshire Council devoted £46.5 million to repairing the county's degrading and heavily-utilised carriageway network.
But the financial burden has kept climbing since then, hitting nearly £46.9 million the following year.
In the 2025 to 2026 period, the volume of reported cavities on roads in North Yorkshire surged, reaching a peak of 6,658 recorded incidents.
The Harrogate Advertiser reader remains less than confident that things are going to improve in North Rigton soon.
"We were told when the new budget became available in April for the council that the problem would be fixed,” said the reader.
"We are now in mid July and still waiting as the potholes get larger and larger."
Last month, North Yorkshire Council launched a new cheaper method of pothole repairs after an “unexpected multi-million pound budget shortfall”.