SELBY area villagers have won their two-year fight to have a dilapidated road adopted and repaired by the county council.

Residents of Biggin have been battling to have Town Street repaired since September 2006.

It was last resurfaced in the 1960s and villager Yvonne Mason, 56, whose elderly parents also live in Biggin, said it was dangerous for residents, with potholes gathering water for many months of the year.

Campaigners argued North Yorkshire County Council had inherited responsibility for the upkeep of the road following local government reorganisation in 1974, when responsibility for Biggin passed from West Riding County Council to North Yorkshire.

But the council's highways department said Town Street was not on their "list of streets" and so they could not spend money repairing it. The Highways Act states a local authority is responsible for the upkeep of a road if it has either existed as a highway prior to 1835, or has been maintained at some time since 1835 at public expense.

And now campaigners have now been successful in presenting County Hall with evidence proving both these conditions.

Mrs Mason said: "Once the road surface has been repaired, it will be so much easier for the residents to be able to walk down Town Street in normal shoes, without fear of getting wet or falling in the potholes."

The villagers were joined by Nigel Adams, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Selby, and county councillor Andrew Lee in their fight.

Mrs Mason said former residents of Biggin had also helped by providing photographs, written statements and memories.

"We have been in touch with former villagers who now live all over the country, with some as far away as Cornwall," she said.

"They have all been very enthusiastic over the research, and have provided valuable information on the history of the village."