Reduction in Gulley cleaning by Highways Department
The budget for routine gulley emptying is to be halved by NYCC. This means that gulleys will be emptied only once a year rather than twice. The budget for drain maintenance will remain unchanged. This is all part of North Yorkshire County Council attempting to save £54,000,000 over the next 3 years.
A retrograde step? In light of recent flooding events in Craven and the likelihood of increased flooding in the future surely the correct course of action would be to INCREASE gulley emptying to 4 times a year. I have asked for this matter to be raised at Craven Area Committee on Thursday February 28th. There are residents in Craven still recovering from the latest flooding - when over 4500 sandbags were delivered to incidents all over the district. This was a joint effort by Craven District Environmental Health Team and NYCC Highways. It was clear that on 21/1/08 the flash flooding was exacerbated by inadequate road drainage - the regular emptying of gulleys would have gone some way to limit the level of flooding. Make your views known regarding this issue and I will ensure they are relayed at Area Committee. I will make representation to the Executive Councillor responsible for this service - John Fort
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