Campaigners hit out at 'flawed' plan to improve transport links

The third local transport plan has already been approved by the North Yorkshire County Council executive and is due to go before the full council next week, where it is widely expected to be agreed.

Senior councillors, who helped comprise the plan over the past 18 months, admit it has been dramatically scaled back due to feared budget cuts of up to 50 per cent and say the plan will instead focus on maintaining the North Yorkshire transport network.

But campaigners, who claim the county's poor links are holding back the economy, have expressed their dismay at the new plan, with a proposed cut to the airport bus linking Harrogate to Leeds Bradford Airport particularly controversial.

Coun John Savage, who was at the meeting when the transport plan was agreed by the county council executive, said: "Obviously we are in difficult times but I can see very little good in this plan, I feel as if we are going backwards.

"There is a lot of anger among Harrogate county councillors and district councillors about cutting the bus service from the airport because the town attracts so much tourism and conference visitors and it is so vital to the economy.

"This cut will have a huge impact, especially as the train services from York to Harrogate are so appalling,

"I'm also concerned that it is the people in the rural areas that will suffer as many bus services will still only be hourly while they are talking about cuts to services on bank holidays and Sundays."

Brian Dunsby, chief executive of the Harrogate Chamber of Trade and Commerce, said the Harrogate International Conference Centre had recently launched a major campaign promoting itself to international visitors coming into Yorkshire by air.

Mr Dunsby said: "It is an appalling situation when you think the airport has been very successful in bringing in new services and becoming more connected across the world while Harrogate has become more disconnected.

"The airport bus is vital in bringing visitors in."

If approved by councillors, the local transport plan will be implemented from April next year and run until March 2016.

A mid-term review of how well it is working is planned for 2013 with the results published on the county council's website.

It has also come under fire from environmental campaigners, including Harrogate Friends of the Earth, who claim it has failed to address an urgent need to place a greater emphasis on climate change and to cut back on traffic volumes.

The plan says the main congestion blackspots in North Yorkshire are in Harrogate, Knaresborough, Scarborough, Whitby, Selby and Ripon – it does not include York in this list.

It also acknowledges the growing problem of the county's ageing populations and a worry older residents, without access to a car, will become marginalised in rural communities.

The county council executive member for highways and planning services, Gareth Dadd, said: "At first we were expecting a 50 per cent cut and even though we are still waiting now we expect our budget to be down by a third in real terms.

"It has been an extremely hard job compiling this plan in a severe financial crisis.

"The plan will focus on maintaining our road network, potholes will be a priority as well as road safety.

"We will also continue to look at some of our rural communities and we will do what we can to try and secure additional funding."

Council leader John Weighell, said yesterday: "Much as we would like to do more to our transport infrastructure there is not enough money."