Motorists and shoppers face disruption from road works

North Yorkshire County Council is investing more than £250,000 in repairing roads and footpaths in Richmond.

The latest stage of the work started in Frenchgate, which is nicknamed The Channel, in the town centre on Monday, and is expected to take a fortnight to complete.

The council’s executive member for highways, Gareth Dadd, said: “These are essential works to improve the road structure and make footways safer for pedestrians in Richmond.

“As always our contractors will endeavour to carry out the work as efficiently and quickly as possible in order to minimise any disruption.”

Four other schemes have already been carried out in Richmond in recent months at the Market Place, King Street, Queens Road and Victoria Road.

More repairs to the town’s famous cobbled Market Place are planned to be carried out during the first three weeks of next month.

The council’s area highways manager for Richmond, Mike Woodford, confirmed that the programme of work was the biggest investment that the town had seen in recent years.

Last year’s freezing temperatures have been blamed for potholes opening up on Richmond’s roads, although Mr Woodford said Frenchgate had escaped relatively unscathed from the most severe winter in more than 30 years.

He added: “The work on Frenchgate had been planned in before last winter, as the carriageway and footpaths had deteriorated to such an extent that the repairs needed to be carried out.

“While the other phases have been carried out during evenings, Frenchgate will have to be closed to traffic throughout the period of the repairs as it is a bigger scheme.

“We have done all the work throughout the winter to minimise disruption, and we are confident we will have finished before the tourist season starts.”

The £30,000 scheme in Frenchgate will involve road resurfacing and widening pavements to improve safety for pedestrians.