ramsden road – Path Watch

Large Hadron Collider Of Incompetence In Scientific First On Kirklees Byway

Whilst not on a par with John Cockcroft and Earnest Walton splitting the atom, the chavs who successfully split a stolen caravan on a Holmfirth Byway do deserve some recognition.

The caravan was driven up Ramsden Road last week where the top half and a trail of debris remains. The mystery of the bottom half of the holiday home has now been solved with the discovery of it’s sad remains on Holmfirth Bridleway 94. A route with a unique set of problems itself.

This scientific discovery would not be possible without the Large Hadron Collider of incompetence that is Kirklees Council.

Ramsden Road Caravan Holiday Ends In Disaster.

Photo from Friends of Ramsden Road FB page.

It’s a good job Charles and Camilla visited earlier in the week ! Back in the real world a caravan has been towed up onto Ramsden Road in the night and wrecked on the rocky section. Readers will recall that the hapless Kirklees Council has spent £44k of taxpayers money on gates for Ramsden Road. The gates have been locked open since installation in February.

The level of incompetence, disregard for public resources and just not giving a toss has been taken to new depths by the bureaucrats of Huddersfield. There is no bottom to this particular barrel it seems.

Post and information Friends of Ramsden Road

Ramsden Road Coronation Special.

He doesn’t just talk to plants.

Welcome to this PathWatch Coronation Special update on Ramsden Road and the Yateholme Lanes. Firstly, some disappointing news. The planned PathWatch Coronation Street Party on Ramsden Road will not be going ahead. Our application for a small grant for bunting, confectionery and a TRO to close the road was turned down by Kirklees. It would have been a fantastic community event and an opportunity to close and lock the £44k worth of gates for a day.

A spokesperson from the council said the PathWatch application was “not that funny really but did get a surprisingly long way in the process before being spotted.”

In a more positive turn of events the King & Queen made a surprise visit to the gates above Holmfirth. King Charles was able to draw on his lifetime of experience of being public funded but having no discernible purpose to offer the gates advice and support in their existential crisis.

Kirklees Take A Spin On Road To Damascus

Kirklees position on green lanes in the Holme Valley has under gone a “road to Damascus” type conversion since last Monday. In late February Kirklees reopened a number of closed lanes and put out a “Come and trash our countryside” sign to the 4×4 brigade. Earlier this week the Head of Highways at Kirklees was advising locals and walkers not to be so sensitive about 4x4s wrecking the Kirklees Way or Holme Valley Circular Walk. Photo above shows 2 vehicles on the Kirklees Way which may or may not have public vehicular rights. There’s not much of it left anyway.

However, there has been a huge public outcry from residents and non motorised users of these lanes. The 3 ward councillors now appear to be working together on the issue and following meetings this week have advised that TRO’s will be placed on the lanes.

This is positive news but early days and much remains unclear at present. Kirklees have a poor record in this area and messed up big time with Ramsden Road Lets hope they’ve learnt from that expensive debacle and proceed with a degree of professionalism & competence that’s previously been absent.

Quote from the Head of Highways earlier this week. Yet another overpaid failure to add to a long list.

Ramsden Road News – 4 Gates Fitted.

First the good news. 4 new gates have been fitted to Ramsden Road and the Yateholme Lanes to stop 4×4 vehicles. The not so good news is that at the moment they are all unlocked. This is Kirklees, so everything is done in the most expensive and inefficient way.

The gates have cost £44K and have been put in ahead of any closure order. This, despite the fact that Kirklees knew they had money for the gates (which had to be spent by March 2023) back in the middle of 2022. Why a PSPO could not have been put in place to coincide with the gates going in is a mystery. So we have a cart before the horse situation for now.

For the record Kirklees have now spent £71K on Ramsden Road and the Yateholme Lanes since 2018. This will be a considerable under estimate as it does not include costs of the failed PSPO or the many officer hours spent on the case. The routes are in a considerably worse condition now than in 2018. A great example of how not to manage byways and unmade roads.

PathWatch will update you when they get things the right way around.

Ramsden Road News.

Kirklees have recently confirmed that they have identified suitable gates for Ramsden Road and the adjoining Yateholme lanes at a cost of £44K. There is budget for this which must be spent by the end of March 2023. The clear implication is that the botched Public Space Protection Order may be resuscitated around this time if a pulse can be found. Time will tell.

The council also say that agreement has been reached with Yorkshire Water regarding drainage off Ramsden Road onto Yorkshire Water land. Tellingly, there’s no mention or even a hint of a timescale for repairs in their latest missive.

Is There Anybody There? Ramsden Road.

Parish Councillors Attempting To Contact Kirklees Managers.

As we head towards the second birthday of the ill fated Public Space Protection Order for Ramsden Road and the fourth birthday of the even more ill fated Experimental Traffic Regulation Order Kirklees Council remain paralysed by incompetence.

Holme Valley Parish Council have been involved for several years in an attempt to improve the Ramsden Road area for residents and users who are suffering from 4×4 misuse. Kirklees appear to be largely ignoring the genuine approach by the Parish Council. So much so that the council has felt it necessary to write a letter asking if there is anybody there at Kirklees.

The item is on the Parish Council agenda for 31st October and is copied and pasted below. It will be interesting to see if a response is received from the “other side”, so to speak.

Planning Committee Meeting – 31/10/2022 Page 4 of 5
v. Ramsden Road

As reported previously, Cllr Wilson wrote 26 August 2022 to Will Acornley who
is the Kirklees Director overseeing the implementation of the Public Space
Protection Order (PSPO) and the physical installation of barriers. Cllr Wilson
received no response. Hence, 14 October 2022 he wrote to the Kirklees Chief
Executive, Jacqui Gedman; Kirklees Strategic Director, Colin Parr; and Kirklees
Service Director, Julie Muscroft to ask if Will Acornley was still in post and to
ask for an update.
At the time of this agenda being posted, Cllr Wilson had yet to receive a reply.
Cllr Wilson to report.
To consider any further actions at this time.

More Off Road Chaos In Kirklees.

Kirklees have received a claim for an unrecorded Byway following an incident on the moors above Holmfirth. Emergency services were called when a large vehicle became stuck in one of the areas notorious peat bogs.

To the surprise of his would be rescuers the driver claimed to be enjoying an ancient pack horse route across the Pennines. The driver, a foreign national from the small Kirklees protectorate of Heckmondwike (like the Caymen islands but shit), insisted on continuing his journey in the hoof steps of pack horse ponies across the misty moors. “My 42 ton wagon does no more damage than walkers or horses because it has tyres” he said. “I’ve every right to be stuck here” he continued.

Kirklees have now commissioned external consultants at a cost of £289488529 per minute to investigate the drivers seemingly preposterous claims. A spokesperson from the council said “we treat all rights of way users equally, whether they drive polluting, damaging vehicles or just enjoy a quiet walk without bothering anybody. This approach has been very successful on Ramsden Road especially for vehicles!”

Popular 4×4 Routes Closed Around Holmfirth.

A swath of “green lanes” in the Holme Valley have recently been closed to 4x4s by Kirklees. The 3 closures are on a popular circuit for damaging 4×4 vehicles but this Bank Holiday Monday all is quiet. Scaly Gate, Cheese Gate Nabside and Scar End Lane are now physically blocked off and have temporary closure orders placed on them.

It is hoped that these closures will become permanent and that they will be shortly extended to cover Ramsden Road and the Yateholme Lanes. This is a positive development for the area and those that enjoy non motorised use of the lanes or live nearby. It seems Kirklees are at last acknowledging the damage and nuisance caused by 4x4s and are now prepared to do something. 🙂

Quick Clean Up On Ramsden Road By Police & Kirklees.

West Yorkshire Police recovering stolen land rover on Ramsden Road

Saturday morning saw a stolen and burnt out land rover left up on Ramsden Road. It was recovered quickly by the police and taken away. Credit to Kirklees for cleaning up the debris on the Monday morning.