Now they're TARMACING our paved paradise to put up a 'parking lot': Fury at plans to dig up stones of historic market square to lay 'cheap' surface

For 20 years, locals have been baffled why the roads around a historic Yorkshire market place are always uneven and blighted with potholes - no matter how often council workmen dig them up and repair them.

They could not believe their eyes recently when one section buckled up to create what locals described as a 'tank trap', forcing the road to be closed completely for emergency repairs.

It is hoped a £630,000 resurfacing programme will finally get the go ahead next year to permanently fix the roads around Ripon's Market Place East and Market Place West.

Councillors in the North Yorkshire city have been calling for years for the damaged paving blocks to be removed and replaced with a tarmac surface.

So far the council has got by by patching up the road including putting in replacement sets of paving blocks and tarmac.

But investigations have now revealed the foundations of the road consisted of little more than sand.

Horrified council bosses found rain water has been soaking through the road surface into the grit, leaving it unable support the weight of the road.

Residents are fuming that the market's traditional cobbles were replaced with the paving blocks in the first place.

They also fear the resurfacing the area in tarmac with make the traditional market place 'look like a car park'.

Taxi driver Bob Turner, 65, said: 'They have done it numerous times. They do it and within a couple of months they dig it up again.

'They have made a right b—lls up of it. Everyone I know wants rid of the slabs. They have repaired them and repaired them and repaired them.

'We have all the local attractions here. No one is bothered about what the road around the market place looks like. It is also so uneven it is a hazard for all the pensioners.

'My main worry is that when it happens it causes chaos and takes weeks to do the job. Last time it happened one of my fellow cabbies had to take out a bank loan to survive.

'He lost so much money he could hardly afford to pay his mortgage. The council grudgingly gave the taxi drives a few spaces during the work but nothing like a proper taxi rank.'

Market trader Andrew Wyedale, 57, who runs a picture framing business in the market, said: 'When I heard they were doing it again I thought they were joking.

'It causes so much disruption. A pedestrian crossing to slow down the traffic would probably be better than tearing the road up all the time.

'Hopefully, they will do it in the middle of February when no one is about. Some of the kerb stones were lifting almost as soon as they finished laying it.

'It is such a shame - all that money wasted for nothing and now there has to be more disruption. The market is already losing trade. This will be another nail in its coffin.'

Local fishmonger Martin Carrick, 47, said: 'The market will lose its character and its charm if they tarmac it.

'It will also cause the sort of disruption that will make people avoid the area, as they did when it was first done. It is then hard to get that business back.'

Local pensioner Pat Lee said: 'I don't think the job that was done in the first instance was the job they should have done.

'It began to get repaired soon after. They are always taking up the road now for one reason or another.

'But I do not want to see Tarmac at all. This is a traditional market town and tarmac would make the market look like any other place in the country.'

Enjoying a morning coffee by the market place, Amanda Stevenson, 66, and husband John, 67, were horrified by the prospect of the resurfacing work.

Mrs Stevenson said: 'It will totally ruin the ambience of the place. We like to come and sit here and admire the traditional market.

'It would be such a shame. It would make it look like a car park. So many places are losing their traditions and we would not want that to happen here.'

Nodding in agreement, another resident Doreen Carling, 83, said: 'The money they have spent repairing the road over and over again is ridiculous.

'It used to be traditional stone cobbles. I do not know why they got rid of them.

'They should never have started messing around with it. The whole area used to be a church yard and it is prone to subsidence.

'But the state of the road is terrible at the moment and Tarmac would be easier to repair. And it is cheaper.'

Ripon council leader Andrew Williams believes there will be a 'pristine road surface' around the market square next year if North Yorkshire Council approves funds.

He said: 'We've finally got to the very bottom of the problem of the uneven surface around the market place.

'It will be safer too so people can cross the road without breaking their neck on one of many potholes that currently exist.'