North Yorkshire transport links '˜are a brake on the economy'

The new plan highlights long journey times as one of the major barriers facing the North Yorkshire economy with workers struggling to access job opportunities and companies reluctant to invest in “peripheral areas of the county”.

While the document commits the county to prioritising improved east-west links, it also warns that the solutions “are expensive costing tens or even hundreds of millions of pounds” and will need Government support.

The county is setting aside £300,000 to fund work that will produce proposals designed to secure Government cash.

The transport plan has been published as the county continues to work to reopen the A59 between Harrogate and Skipton, one of North Yorkshire’s main east-west routes.

Efforts are underway to stabalise the hillside at Kex Gill following the winter storms which have left it in danger of collapsing onto the road, forcing the route’s closure. It is expected to remain closed until the end of this month at the earliest.

Plans have been developed to re-route the A59 to provide a long term solution but the cost is estimated at more than £30 million.

Senior county councillors will consider the transport plan at a meeting tomorrow.

Don Mackenzie, the county council’s executive member for transport, said: “North Yorkshire has one of the largest transport networks in the country, spread across a vast largely rural area, with one or two areas of serious traffic congestion like Harrogate.

“The wellbeing of our residents and the economic future of our region, of its towns, market towns and villages, of its industry, its tourism, its cultural and heritage development, all rely on transport networks that are fit for purpose.

“This new plan sets out that purpose and takes the long view as well as setting out short-term aims.”

The transport plan highlights the good quality routes in the county’s “central corridor” around the A1(M) and the East Coast Main Line.

But it highlights coastal towns, Ryedale and Craven as those areas particularly suffering from poor connections to the wider transport network.

“These peripheral areas of the County also include many of the main tourist attractions in North Yorkshire (coastal resorts and National Parks) and as such their peripherality can be a constraint on what is one of the most important economic sectors in North Yorkshire,” the plan says.

The report says that North Yorkshire’s towns are well served by public transport and so the county council should “concentrate its limited resources on providing access to essential services for those living in very rural areas that do not have access to a car”.

The plan highlights the heavy reliance county residents have on cars to access health services with 80 per cent using their car to access hospitals and 60 per cent for trips to the doctor.