Bridge repairs

Repairs to our bridge parapet finally began on 19th October, 21 months after it was damaged in January 2025. Many of us have spent that time queuing at the temporary lights, which have sometimes failed altogether, to cross a bridge reduced to single-file traffic.

Cllr George Jabbour, our North Yorkshire Councillor for the Helmsley & Sinnington Division, asked that as many from the village turn up at the bridge the day after work started to have a photograph taken for the local press. As well as publicising the closure and giving details of diversions, he wanted to show that this delay has affected real people in our Parish every day, and that it shouldn’t have taken this long.

Whilst we were there, George read out an email from North Yorkshire Council confirming that the bridge would be closed for four weeks. The Council is taking the opportunity to repair the parapet but also to reset other stones and repoint the bridge on the upstream and downstream sides, hence the weighty scaffolding which alone will take over a week to erect and dismantle.

The exercise was a success, and an article appeared the next day in the Gazette & Herald, our local rag (see link below). George will continue to press the Council for a speedier resolution in future cases.

George also took the opportunity, whilst we were all there, to take photo of the happy, smiley people that our village really is.

Gallery

Side by side, the “irritated” photo and the “happy” photo…

See us in the papers

Here is the link to the Gazette & Herald article

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