Landmark Dales road in ‘priority gritting’ campaign

FEARS OVER the safety of a hazardous road in deepest North Yorkshire have sparked a campaign calling on the county council to make the area a greater priority for gritters.

Councils have long warned about the dangers of Buttertubs Pass, a notoriously treacherous road in the Yorkshire Dales, in icy weather and snow. And with critical care services at the nearest hospital under threat, potentially forcing people to travel 60 miles for services in Lancaster, campaigners are calling for change.

“These roads are the lifelines of our deeply rural, sparsely populated communities,” said Coun John Blackie, an independent who represents the Upper Dales at North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC).

“Going 60 miles to be seen when you have had an unfortunate accident or your daughter or close relative is undergoing a difficult or complex birth of a baby is stressful enough on a fine day.

“If you have to contemplate ungritted roads in the dead of night amidst the hostile winters we have here, it is unbearable.”

Coun Blackie has campaigned rigorously for 19 years for a higher priority of gritting to the road, linking Upper Wensleydale and Upper Swaledale.

The “lifeline road”, perhaps best known for the now iconic scenes when the Tour de France riders climbed it in July 2014, rises to well over 2,000 ft.

It has tortuous bends and severe gradients, says Coun Blackie, and is perilous in the extreme winter conditions of this area.

“It is in a different world, almost on a different planet when it is icy or snowing,” he said.

Now, he says, as a consultation draws near over the future of critical care services at Darlington Memorial Hospital, the issue is even more concerning.

If A&E and consultant-led maternity services were to close, people living in Upper Swaledale would have to travel 60 miles to the nearest hospital in Lancaster.

“That’s a long, long way to go,” he said. “It’s made even worse when the roads you’re driving on are impassable in the dead of night.

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect, even as a rural community, access to services.

“Buttertubs Pass is very treacherous indeed. It’s not a road to be taken by the faint hearted in the middle of winter unless you have very good reason.”

Supported by Muker Parish Council, Hawes and High Abbotside Parish Council and the Richmondshire District Council Upper Dales Area Partnership (UDAP) as well as the Richmondshire area committee meeting, Coun Blackie wrote to NYCC over the level of gritting priority at its annual meeting on August 26.

The appeal was refused, with executive members saying there are grit bins along the road for drivers to help themselves and alternative routes are available.

Now, Coun Blackie has sworn to keep fighting, and is collecting a dossier of evidence of accidents and gritting delays which he hopes to present to the council, as well as inviting executive members to view the pass themselves early on an icy morning.

“We’re not taking no for an answer,” he said. “Not in the Upper Dales.

“We’re fighting on. We won’t be dismissed. It is a wild road - but it’s a lifeline.”