MPs urge boost for road and rail links to coast

Coastal communities are facing up to a wave of development which has been heralded as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity but it will place severe pressure on the already creaking transport network.

Plans are being drawn up to create a £1bn potash mine in the North York Moors National Park, while the world’s largest off-shore wind farm is due to be built off the coast at Dogger Bank. Two of the UK’s biggest wind farms are already under development around the Humber – the Humber Gateway and Westernmost Rough.

A meeting between the region’s MPs and Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin is due to be held in the next month to discuss the need to upgrade the A64, which is the main route across North Yorkshire to the coast and a notorious congestion blackspot.The Secretary of State is also facing calls to extend the electrification of the North TransPennine route between Manchester and Leeds across to the coast.

The Government announced details on Monday of the separate landmark HS2 project to provide a £32bn high-speed rail link to Yorkshire and benefits in Leeds, Sheffield and York. But there are concerns the coast is being left behind in the rail revolution.

The MP for Scarborough and Whitby, Robert Goodwill, has been a leading campaigner to bolster the transport infrastructure. While the Department for Transport stressed there are no imminent plans to upgrade the coastal road and rail network, Mr Goodwill claimed the need for improvements is becoming increasingly acute to ensure the fractured economy can be nursed back to health.

He said: “I am heartened that the Government is talking about investment that brings about tangible benefits for years to come. The easiest way to slash expenditure would be to ditch programmes for road and rail improvements, but that would not be good for the economy or the country as a whole.”

A report has been prepared after the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire All Party Parliamentary Group met with industry leaders, council representatives and Ministers. The document recommends greater investment in the North’s infrastructure to unlock economic growth and the Yorkshire Post understands it has been welcomed by the Secretary of State.

Scarborough Borough Council’s portfolio holder for strategic development, regeneration and planning, Coun Derek Bastiman, claimed the unified approach had proved the region has “a stronger voice in Westminster” to shape future transport investment.

He added: “With major opportunities such as the proposed York Potash mine and the offshore wind sector developments in our region, this is more critical than ever.”

An ambitious bid to provide dual carriageways along the 35-mile stretch of the A64 between York and Scarborough faltered amid predictions it would cost between £400m and £500m. But the Yorkshire Post revealed in 2011 highways officials were considering a series of smaller schemes to target specific accident blackspots and congestion bottlenecks.

The electrification of the trans-Pennine line from Liverpool to York will allow faster and more frequent trains, and would add billions of pounds of value to the Northern economy. But the Government is being urged to ensure the benefits extend to the coast.

The calls for infrastructure improvements come as a planning application for the potash mine, which is due to create as many as 5,000 jobs, is expected to be submitted imminently. The mine earmarked for farmland near Whitby would exploit one of the world’s most extensive seams of potash, a key component in fertiliser. The Dogger Bank wind farm, which is set to include about 2,600 giant turbines each up to 400ft tall, will stretch across an area equivalent to the size of North Yorkshire.