Two Harrogate councillors have used a special motion to Harrogate Borough Council to call on Network Rail to end a decades old problem with the rail bridge known as the one-arch at the end of Bower Street.
For decades residents have put up with a shower of drips under the one-arch in what is a busy thoroughfare to and from town. The drips continue long after the rain has stopped and local people regularly complain about the slippery surface and soiled clothes from the drips.
Councillor Richard Cooper (Cons, High Harrogate) and Councillor Jean Butterfield (Cons, Low Harrogate) have used a motion to Harrogate’s full Council to call on Network Rail to put the bridge right.
Councillor Cooper commented:
I’ve contacted Network Rail before but they simply tell me the bridge is structurally sound. This might be true if you are a train but it doesn’t feel true if you are a pedestrian going under the bridge and dodging the drips. I’m sure in engineering terms it isn’t a difficult problem to solve and I want Network Rail to give the green light to their contractors to do the repairs as soon as possible.
Councillor Butterfield added:
If you are walking into town from the High Harrogate area your quickest route is through the one-arch. It’s irritating enough to find muddy drips splashing on you particularly when the rain stopped hours before. It’s doubly annoying if you have dressed up to go out somewhere special. It’s high time this problem was fixed.
The motion Councillors Cooper and Butterfield have submitted to the 19 July 2012 Council meeting reads:
That this Council lobbies Network Rail to undertake urgent remedial work to the one arch bridge connecting Bower Street and Station Parade. The purpose of the work is to prevent water dripping on pedestrians walking under the bridge and solving a decades-old problem of annoyance and frustration to many.
I love Harrogate. There must be so few towns in the country where this represents councillors’ biggest worries. Other towns suffer gun crime or riots. We have slightly excess drippage from a nineteenth century arch. We are so lucky.