THE overturning of the planning refusal for the Gargrave Road filling station is disappointing (Service station plan approved, Craven Herald, September 7).

Can we at least ensure that the new roundabout that will be built at the entrance to the new filling station is:

Better designed than the mini-roundabout at the bottom of Rockwood Drive, which is still routinely ignored by drivers on Gargrave Road; and better designed, and also better built, than the one at the Gateway House/auction mart junction – it is unclear where the real boundary of this roundabout is, and the surface of it is in need of repair, as the paving on it is coming loose.

The planning inspector thinks there will be “no unacceptable impacts on highway safety”.

I’m not looking forward to trying to navigate the end of Gargrave Road where there will be, eventually, the entrance to the Keelham Farm Shop, and then some 30 meters further on a roundabout, with a further gap of around 50 meters to the major A59/A65 roundabout, which is already problematical with its lack of guidance on the correct usage of lanes.

This suggests major potential for gridlock at peak times. Given the speed with which most drivers negotiate the major roundabout, any gridlock on the inbound side of Gargrave Road that reaches back into that roundabout will be potentially dangerous.

The planning inspector’s idea that the new petrol station might serve the local community is interesting, as I, and many people I know, have given up buying petrol in Skipton, given the quasi-cartel pricing operated by our two major supermarkets.

If the new station can offer a lower petrol price than available elsewhere in Skipton, great, but the cynic in me suspects they will adopt pricing curiously similar to the existing providers, and will thus be of no incremental service to the local community at all.

Richard Copley

Skipton