THIS is the scene greeting locals on the main street through a York town this morning.

Residents in Haxby have expressed their anger and concern after they claim The Village has been re-surfaced at short notice leaving people with little option other than to walk on the wet tar.

The council has been out to inspect the site today (December 3) and says their contractors will return on Sunday to redo the work.

Lydia Harrison, 34, is a children and family worker who lives in Huntington though she frequently visits Haxby.

Lydia was one of the many people in Haxby who were completely unaware of the re-surfacing process that was taking place.

She said: “I was going to Aroma Cafe after work. I pulled my car up outside the Memorial Hall. There were signs further up the road, but nothing where I was parked.”

As such, Lydia found her shoes covered in tar after walking on The Village and her footprints left marks on the newly laid surface.

She said: “For a town as busy as Haxby you’d think they’d have done it overnight, not on a busy day in the run up to Christmas. It’ll cost more now to fix it properly, it feels like a massive waste of time and resources.”

She reiterated that she had not heard anything about the re-surfacing and after speaking to locals of Haxby found that they hadn’t either. Some had trouble reaching their premises.

On The Press Camera Club group on Facebook, Lynnette Cammidge said: “I feel sorry for anyone that lives in Haxby. It won’t set for 24 hours and they’ve left the residents with no access to their front doors and a lot of them have no rear access. 

“They’ve left a narrow, dirty access to the pub that we had to push my mum through in her wheelchair. We had to walk on the road with no signage warning motorists. It will be awful now in the dark I don’t know what the council was thinking and they’ve left no flashing lights to warn pedestrians.”

Haxby and Wigginton Councillor Andrew Hollyer said: “It is disappointing to see the damage caused by inadequate pedestrian management by the contractors, which saw people miss the wet tar signs and walk on the newly treated pavement.

“We have spent this morning with Council officers inspecting pavements on the north side of The Village and have been reassured that the contractors will return to redo the damaged sections on Sunday, when more appropriate traffic and pedestrian management will also be put in place, including wardens to warn people for the remainder of the work.

“Whilst this damage is unfortunate, the sections of the village where there have been no issues during the treatment of the pavements look excellent, so hopefully soon that will also be the case in this newly-done stretch.”