The remaining roadworks on ther newly opened section of the A59 at Kex Gill between Harrogate and Skipton have been the cause of some long tail backs this week, but there as been reports of frustrated drivers jumping the lights.

In an interview on the Late Show on YorkMix Radio, North Yorkshire Council leader Carl Les says they have been forced to install cameras to monitor the dangerous manoeuvres.

Cllr Les said:

“It would be impossible to to finish off the new road and the two tie-ins without taking the traffic somewhere else, so the traffic has to be taken off those tie-ins onto the new road to get round and that allow the workmen to actually then finish off the the tie-in at at both ends.

“It’s the Harrogate end that is the most complicated. We’re also rebuilding the road that comes down from the left as you’re going towards Kex Gill, which has always been a very steep gradient and a difficult junction because of poor visibility.

“So all that has been taken care of now in the last few weeks of the project. The traffic lights are there, and unfortunately, they are leading to some congestion.

“We have had some very unfortunate incidents of people actually jumping the lights and then meeting the oncoming traffic halfway through the lights, so we’ve put up some more CCTV in to catch people who are actually jumping the lights because that has not been helpful at all.”

(Picture: North Yorkshire Council)