Town faces gridlock as repairs projects begin on main routes

North Yorkshire County Council has announced it is to shut the Selby swing bridge to vehicles for 14 weeks and at the same begin 10 weeks of large-scale repairs on Doncaster Road – one of the main thoroughfares through Selby – from Monday.

It is the second time that a major repairs project will have brought Selby to a standstill in recent years, with a large-scale renaissance scheme finished only 18 months ago.

Traders say they are still getting over the loss of business from the previous work and fear the latest closures could have a devastating impact on the town centre, with the traffic chaos driving some shoppers away for good.

The chairman of Selby Chamber of Trade and Commerce, Geoff Gordon, said: “This is going to cause a massive amount of problems.

“There is a lot of anger about it in the town but people accept that this work has to be done.

“Traders are very worried.

“When the town becomes a gridlock a lot of people cannot be bothered to go in.

“It is very easy for people to go elsewhere and possibly they may never come back to Selby ever again.

“Like all rural towns, Selby’s town centre infrastructure is very fragile.

“But these repairs to the bridge have been put off for years and it is an unavoidable evil.”

North Yorkshire County Council says the repair work on the swing bridge will cost £550,000 and will ensure it complies with modern standards and will be able to continue to carry heavy commercial traffic in the future.

The bridge will be closed to all vehicles, including motorcycles, from the start of the works.

While pedestrian access will be allowed for the first week, after that the swing part of the bridge will be kept in the open position for six weeks as Government guidelines say passage of river traffic needs to have precedence over highway road traffic.

Once the bridge is closed shut again, pedestrians will have access for the remainder of the works.  

The county council says while normally it would maintain some access for vehicles and pedestrians, it is not possible at the site because it would require a temporary structure being built across the river which would cost more than £1m – double the cost of the repairs themselves.

The Doncaster Road works will last for 10 weeks and will require temporary traffic signals along with two Sunday closures of the road.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for highways, Gareth Dadd, said: “We understand these two schemes will cause some considerable disruption to Selby, but we are doing everything possible to minimise difficulties for people.

“We cannot delay the bridge work further for safety reasons and the extensive programme of repairs we have set out will make the bridge fit for purpose for many years to come.

“After much consideration we decided it would be better to run the two schemes – the swing bridge and Doncaster Road – in parallel thus minimising the length of time for disruption.”

The county council says it has selected the timing for closure of the bridge to have least possible impact on businesses.

It says a free bus service will be introduced during the six week closure to pedestrians, running from 5am and midnight between Selby bus station and along Barlby Road to the north of the bridge.

It also plans to provide additional buses for pupils who live to the south of the Bridge that attend Barlby Bridge School and for nursery school children and parents.

Diversions and parking restrictions will also be in place throughout the town centre for the duration of the works.