Villagers sounding off over noise reduction expenditure

Residents in Osgodby, near Scarborough, have been pressuring the county council for years since the A165 was built, claiming the thousands of cars thundering past every day is severely impacting on their quality of life.

North Yorkshire County Council announced yesterday it was spending £40,000 on a new bund – an embankment of earth to protect residents – in the Scarborough Sea View area of the A165, but said it had no plans to build anything at Osgodby.

The chairman of Osgodby Village Council, Phil King, said: “It is a kick in the teeth that the council suddenly found all this money to build this bund.

“We still really need this doing.

“We get more noise in the Osgodby area because the road at Scarborough Sea View is quite far away from residents there.

“Before this road was built, Osgodby was much more peaceful – now we get thousands of cars along here every day.”

North Yorkshire County Council confirmed officers were sent to Osgodby to measure the noise levels, but they were not deemed loud enough to require a bund.

The council also said that if one were to be built at Osgodby, it would need to be double the height of the Scarborough Sea View bund and would not be a justifiable expenditure.

Work on the Sea View bund is set to begin in the first week of September and is expected to be completed about three weeks later.

The council said traffic on the A165 should not be unduly disrupted while the work is carried out, although a temporary speed limit of 30mph, and a ban on overtaking, will apply while the bund is built.

“I am delighted that this long-awaited bund is now proceeding,” said County Councillor Penny Marsden, the divisional member who has been pressing for the project.

“The bund will help reduce noise pollution and also afford a measure of screening of the new road from local people.”

A full landscape planting programme will be carried out on the bund in the autumn.