DRAINAGE bosses are to carry out test drilling in a last ditch effort to repair pothole-ridden Cross Hills streets.

Nearly all residents living in the unadopted Sandylands area of the village have agreed to pay for their streets to be resurfaced.

But highways chiefs face a £10,000 bill from Yorkshire Water just to find out if rain water from the streets can go into the drains.

Now test drilling is to take place to discover if a special "soak away" can be built to allow water to simply drain into the ground.

Residents have been complaining for years about the state of the unadopted roads which include Back Station Road, Station Grove, Sandylands, Anderton Street and Newby Street.

Now the majority of them have agreed to pay for the work to be done but rules say proper drainage must be installed for the county council to adopt the roads.

Reg King, from North Yorkshire County Council's development control department, said Yorkshire Water had refused to waive a £10,000 fee for investigating what effect putting rain water from the streets would have on the area's drainage system.

"The only alternative solution is to investigate discharging the surface water to a deep soak away," he said.

"Our initial surveys showed that the ground would not be suitable, but I shall be arranging for some deeper test drilling to be done to see if this is feasible.

"We can't guarantee it will work until we do some tests."

A delegation of residents met Skipton MP David Curry last weekend as part of their battle to get Yorkshire Water to change its mind about the £10,000 fee.

A residents' spokesman said: "As far as we're concerned it's Yorkshire Water which has been holding the whole thing up because we have agreed to pay for the resurfacing work."

Yorkshire Water told the Herald that surface water drainage was the responsibility of the highways department.

In a statement, it said: "Requests to discharge highways surface water into the sewer are reviewed on an individual basis. The company is in no way obliged to take highways water into the sewer.

"In the Cross Hills area we are already aware that the major trunk sewer is surcharging.

"Before considering any additional flows we believe that it is necessary to undertake an investigation of the sewer system which will involve modelling of the sewer."

The company added that this would be carried out by contractors at an estimated cost of £10,000.

"It is therefore necessary to advise North Yorkshire County Council of this cost and pass it on to them," it said.