'We feel marooned by roadworks around our market town'

On a sunny summer's day, the Yorkshire Dales market town of Hawes is packed with visitors. Local businesses rely on tourism, but a "relentless" series of roadworks on routes in and out of the town has dented their takings.

"Obviously it's good that the roads are being fixed," says Jill McMullon, chair of the local parish council.

"It's the amount of roadworks that have been a problem."

Over the last six months, most major routes in and out of the town have seen closures lasting weeks or months.

Because of the geography of the area, diversion routes often add dozens of miles to journeys.

"If you have booked a holiday you can always find a way, if you've got a cottage or a hotel," says McMullon.

"If you're coming for the day - which a lot of people do to Hawes, we are totally reliant on tourism - you're going to come across a sat nav or a road sign and you just think 'actually I won't bother, I'll go somewhere else'."

McMullon says some road signs have also been wrong, which has "forced people away".

"It's almost like we've been marooned," she says, adding that alternative routes are often "very narrow" and challenging for drivers.

However, she says there has been "too much negativity" on social media, discouraging potential visitors.

"Hawes is still open."

Sean Caven, who runs Caffé Curva in the town centre, says it has often felt like "nobody was coming into Hawes".

"Our takings are down by a third a day on this time last year."

The road closures have also delayed some of his deliveries, so they arrive after the café has opened.

"You have customers climbing over deliveries," he says.

"It's dangerous for starters. If someone trips over, I'm liable."

Caven says he generally finds out about the closures from other Hawes residents, rather than North Yorkshire Council.

"It's having a massive effect on our business and [the council] don't seem to care."

Kevin Tasker owns The Old Sweet Shop, a short walk up the road from Caffé Curva, and agrees.

"The information the council have been putting out has been at odds with the information the contractors have if you speak to them, and also at odds with what the roadwork signs have said."

His takings during the closure of the Ingleton road were down 15 to 20% compared to the previous year.

However, during the school half-term holiday, the road reopened for a week, and his takings were 10% better than expected.

"All the businesses in Hawes are independent traders. I doubt that any of us would be able to run on local trade alone."

His sweet shop colleague Mel Barningham also works as the manager of a pub in Settle, and normally commutes along the Ingleton road.

However, during the roadworks she is driving the 10 minutes to Garsdale railway station to commute by train.

"My work hours are limited because the trains aren't very often and the last train is at 17 minutes past seven on a night, so I can't do a bar close or anything," she says.

The train she has to catch leaves Garsdale at 06:55, more than an hour before she would normally leave Hawes.

"It's been very tiring."

The road from Hawes to Ingleton, the B6255, passes the front door of the Station Inn at Ribblehead.

It is one of three pubs operated by Andrew Hields.

"We've literally had road closure after road closure all at the same time as well," he says.

He says the Station Inn, alongside the Tan Hill Inn and the Green Dragon Inn in Hardraw, north of Hawes, have all "really, really suffered" as a result of "poor planning".

"The road closures have been long overdue," he adds.

"It seems like everybody's just woken up and said 'OK, let's fix all the roads', which is great, but you have to fix them in a sensible and sustainable time frame."

Roadworks in recent months have also added significant journey times to one of the local school bus routes, driven by Chris Mansfield.

Closures since October had caused detours on his journey from Hawes to Sedbergh ranging from four miles (6km) to 30 miles (48km).

"That's an extra hour on the day for the children."

Some of the roads used for diversion routes are narrower and have resulted in the school bus getting stuck when passing another vehicle.

"Luckily a lot of the children live on farms and their parents have got tractors.

"We've had children call up to say 'dad, can you come and tow us out please?' "

Susan Hudson, who manages the community-owned Little White Bus Company, says the roadworks have been "relentless" since October last year and are expected to last until October this year.

"We've had to stop picking up at the same places," she says.

"We've said we'll go if people need us but we can't swing by."

On certain routes set in contracts, buses are "going back on ourselves" to call at the right locations, making them late, she adds.

With some road closures lasting longer then planned, the largely-volunteer driver workforce are having to tell each other which routes to use, rather than relying on official information.

"Can we have a bit of a break please in between? Can we have some time for it to be normal?"

The bus service is partly funded by the petrol station in Hawes, which is also owned by the Upper Dales Community Partnership.

David Colley, director of the partnership, says the volume of fuel sold has barely changed in the past four years.

"The one exception to all of that is the recent roadworks, which have either hit us coming from the east, the west, or other side roads coming into the village."

He adds that the partnership, which also operates a community office, library, post office and banking facilities, is "right up against it".

"We miss every pound that doesn't get generated out of this garage."

Upper Dales councillor Yvonne Peacock, who is part of the ruling Conservative group on North Yorkshire Council, admits the major work on the B6255 has taken place "later than we wanted".

She argued for it not to take place in August 2025, she says, with 13 April set for a start before "the contractor let us down".

However, Peacock says the work "had to be done" because of a "big drainage problem".

"We've had traffic lights up there for nearly two years and they cost a lot of money."

Peacock says the work could not have taken place during winter, when Hawes is typically quieter.

"They can't work in the rain, making the road closure longer. Also, you get the ice and snow," she explains.

"It's always done faster if we can get it done in the spring."

She says the "old Victorian-built roads" locally face "a lot of infrastructure problems".

"Let's face it, our residents get very cross about a lot of the rough roads.

"They want them to be better but of course, they're narrow. Because they are narrow, we can't have traffic lights, we always have to have full road closures."

However, Peacock says she is unhappy about how information on road closures is communicated, including temporary signs.

They can "be there for a week when it's been closed for a week", she adds.

"I do get cross but I make sure those at North Yorkshire Council know how cross I am."

The roadworks in Hawes have been "carefully planned over several years to keep disruption as low as possible", says North Yorkshire Council's executive member for highways and transportation, councillor Malcolm Taylor.

"The scheme includes three necessary elements, and the timing has been chosen to avoid the busiest periods," he explains.

"Winter isn't suitable for this type of work, autumn would clash with sheep sales, and summer is peak visitor season."

He insists that residents and businesses were "informed in advance through letters, signage was put up at least two weeks before the closure, and there were online updates".

"We are not aware of closures over-running, and contractors are reminded to keep signage accurate and remove it promptly once roads reopen."

Additional reporting by Katie Radley.

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