Revolt over fresh plans to rip up Finkle Street cobbles
A campaign to defend the cobbled appearance of an historic town centre shopping street got under way last night after details of a controversial new resurfacing scheme emerged online.
Selby
Proposals by County Hall highways officials to rip up the cobble-like surface of Finkle Street were made public after excerpts from an NYCC consultation letter found their way onto the ‘Save our Selby’ facebook group.
Outlined in the letter, sent to residents and businesses of Finkle Street, the plans would see the street's familiar cobbles set to disappear into history, replaced with a hot rolled finish of ‘coloured asphalt’. Flagged paving along the street would also be relaid onto a new bed as part of the proposed works.
The cobble-like blocks have defined the look of Finkle Street since the they were laid as part of a multi-million pound town centre facelift project in 1997. NYCC says the surface has now begun to fail and needs replacing after just 17 years.
During the project Finkle Street was also redesignated for use as ‘access only’ to businesses and homes on the street itself. The move designed to virtually pedestrianise the historic road, creating a shopper friendly environment.
But, save for the occasional purge, the new designation has been largely ignored and unenforced throughout this time with drivers continuing to use the street as a ‘rat run’ for access to Miklegate car park and the B1223 beyond.
Lack of enforcement of Finkle Street’s designation and the continuing use of the road by higher volumes of traffic than intended is widely thought to have contributed to the deterioration of the surface.
The new plan marks the the second time in as many years that NYCC has moved forward with plans to rip up the surface of Finkle Street. A similar plan was shelved in 2012 following strong local opposition.
A revolt over the latest scheme was seen to be brewing in Selby tonight where well in excess of a hundred angry comments have been posted to the facebook group in less than 24 hours. Contributors have urged the public to get in touch with NYCC highways officials and Selby’s MP Nigel Adams to demonstrate strong opposition to the plan.
Richard Marr, Area Manager at NYCC’s highways department told Selby Online, “The plan you have seen is the initial consultation with some key parties outlining our first thoughts on providing Finkle Street with a long term, low maintenance solution to the block paving which is failing.
“We have not predetermined the outcome of this scheme and are wanting to hear from the public with their views.
“However I must stress that the existing block paving has not performed very well and I feel it would be a retrograde step just to relay them. However, as intimated above, we have not ruled anything out, or ruled anything in.”