Ripon Kirkgate Bollards: 868 Sign, Officers Say No

A petition asking North Yorkshire Council to close Kirkgate in Ripon to traffic for most of the day will be debated by councillors on Thursday 1 October. It has 868 signatures.

The council’s own officers have already said the plan, as drawn, does not work. Their report to the Skipton and Ripon Area Committee sets out why.

What the petition asks for

Kirkgate runs from the city centre up to Ripon Cathedral. The petition, which combined paper and online signatures, asks for:

• timed pedestrianisation using automatic rising bollards
• the street closed to traffic from 10am to 5pm
• the closure extended to 9pm in summer
• the council to launch a formal public consultation

The petitioners say Kirkgate is “already designated as a pedestrian zone within the Ripon Neighbourhood Plan - yet traffic still dominates our street”. They also say Ripon City Council’s call for a consultation “is now being blocked by North Yorkshire Council”. The full wording is in the committee report.

What Kirkgate is now

Kirkgate is already a pedestrian zone with no parking at any time. Vehicles may only enter for access, and the street is one way throughout. Anyone driving in must have business on the street itself, the report says.

This is not the first request. Officers say timed closure was asked for in 2019 and again in 2025/26, and that it was not taken forward either time because of “constraints”.

Why officers say no

The report lists the problems in turn:

• Court Terrace would be cut off. A full closure from 10am would block access to every property on the street, including its takeaways and restaurants and the homes at Court Terrace.
• The workaround is not a public road. Court Terrace residents have used a route through the Sainsbury’s delivery access as an exception during past closures. Officers point out that route is not adopted highway.
• Moving the bollards creates a new problem. Putting them just past Court Terrace would mean making the stretch from Court Terrace to Minster Road two way. Officers say it is too narrow for that to be safe and do not recommend it.
• Heritage rules apply. Kirkgate sits in the Ripon Conservation Area and in the buffer zone of the Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey World Heritage Site, which protects views of the cathedral from Studley Royal. Rising bollards would have to pass conservation and planning tests, not just highways ones.
• Someone has to pay. Installing, running and maintaining the bollards would need its own funding decision.
• A consultation costs money too. Officers ask councillors to weigh the cost to the local highways team of a wide consultation on a scheme they already think cannot be delivered.

Officers do add that highways staff “recognise the benefits” of using Kirkgate for community events, and have supported planned road closures for them before.

They also note a catch for cafes hoping for tables in the street. Any business wanting outdoor seating would still need a pavement licence. A clear width of about 5 metres would have to be kept for emergency vehicles, and furniture would have to come in whenever the road reopened.

Where the push for a consultation came from

The row has been running at Ripon City Council since last year. Minutes of its 8 December 2025 meeting record that the city council had already decided to request a public consultation on pedestrianising Kirkgate. At that meeting a residents’ representative spoke about a survey on the idea.

The same minutes record that Cllr Williams, the county councillor for Kirkgate, was due to meet senior North Yorkshire officers “and pushing for a public consultation”, with support from other city councillors.

What the committee can actually do

Not much, directly. The committee report says councillors on the area committee cannot simply grant the petition or refuse it, because the decision is not within their powers.

Their options on Thursday are to:

• refer the matter to the relevant overview and scrutiny committee for more work
• write their own report, with recommendations, to whoever does make the decision
• note the petition and take no further action

The petition organiser gets five minutes to present it. Councillors then have up to 15 minutes to debate it. The council must confirm its response in writing and publish it.

What it means for you

• The meeting is in Skipton, not Ripon. It starts at 10am on Thursday 1 October in the Belle Vue Suite, Belle Vue Square, Broughton Road, about 20 miles south-west of Ripon. The agenda and papers are online.
• Nothing changes on Kirkgate yet. Access-only rules stay as they are. Even a referral on Thursday would only start more work, not a consultation.
• If you live on Court Terrace or run a business on Kirkgate, the access problems in the report are the ones that will decide this. Your county councillor is the person to tell.
• The same meeting will also hear a second petition, “Make Brierley Homes Pay Up What They Owe to the Kirkby Malzeard Community”, from the village about six miles north-west of Ripon.

For how the council handles parking and restrictions across the district, see our parking guide. Current road closures are on our roadworks and travel page.