Council to invest £500,000 in transport and enterprise

SENIOR councillors are due to agree today to allocate more than half of a £1m package of funding to schemes to tackle York’s beleaguered road network and boost the city’s burgeoning science and technology sector.
By The Newsroom
Published 9th Oct 2012, 07:00 BST

Members of York Council’s cabinet are expected to give the go-ahead for a total of £505,000 to be allocated to the two separate schemes under the authority’s Delivery and Innovation Fund (DIF).

Councillors agreed in February to set up the DIF to provide £1m in funding to finance the delivery of key council projects and support major schemes in the city.

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One of the new bids is for £330,000 to fund an innovation catalyst programme aimed at building on the science and technology sector which has become fundamental to York’s economy after the demise of the manufacturing industries, such as confectionary. The cash would be used to set up initiatives by the council and Science City York including an innovation think tank and an Innovation Network to support businesses.

The other bid is aimed at securing a total of £175,000 to pay for an initial business case for the second phase of the Access York scheme, which is the cornerstone of the council’s transport policy to alleviate York’s notorious tailbacks. The money would be used to fund feasibility studies to look at improvements on York’s outer ring road - which has been dubbed “Yorkshire’s answer to the M25” by business leaders - along with transport schemes in the city centre.

Council leader James Alexander said: “The Delivery and Innovation Fund was created to support areas requiring one-off investment, to support major project delivery and facilitate the development of new and innovative ways of working.

“A total of £1m has been made available through this fund, and if approved at cabinet, a large portion of this funding will be used to help kick-start Phase Two of our Access York programme and the innovation programme in partnership with Science City York.”

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A total of £262,500 has already been allocated from the DIF for 10 schemes, including £20,000 to help organise for the Queen’s visit to York in April and £73,000 for the city’s celebrations to mark the 800th anniversary since it was granted a Royal Charter.

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