Major roadwork schemes for Tour de Yorkshire to be reviewed after cancellation

North Yorkshire County Council, which has agreed to spend £814,000 on repairing and resurfacing roads ahead of the sixth running of the Tour de Yorkshire, will reconsider whether pressing ahead with the plans will be the best use of the funding.

In recent years the Conservative-led authority has faced a number of challenges from opposition members over focussing its efforts on creating high-specification surfaces for cyclists, meaning work on roads that better meet the standard criteria for repairs is delayed.

Since the event was called off earlier this month the authority, which in 2018 estimated it had a £300m road repairs backlog, has faced calls to divert the funding to areas which residents claim have been overlooked.

The authority’s executive member for highways, Councillor Don Mackenzie said the council was expecting to announce plans for additional road repairs in the coming weeks and would also examine whether the plans for the Tour de Yorkshire roads should go ahead this year.

He said: “These are roads that would have been repaired in some way but the schedule was brought forward in order for us to carry out the work in advance of the Tour de Yorkshire.

"It was called off only a few days ago, so in the coming weeks we will look to review the schedules. Following the Chancellor’s budget statement we are expecting an another substantial tranche of money for highways repairs and in the coming days or weeks will confirm what our additional plans are.”

He said the county’s 5,750-mile road network was surveyed on a rolling maintenance programme to ensure the routes that needed repairs most urgently were prioritised.