Scheme to boost national park’s transport links to be finalised

The proposals centred on the Esk Valley in the North York Moors National Park are aimed at providing a more sustainable transport network and include plans for improved bus services and a park and ride facility in Whitby.

The strategy is heavily themed around preserving the environment, and an electric bike hire scheme is also due to be launched if funding is secured from the Government.

The North York Moors National Park Authority has joined forces with North Yorkshire County Council to finalise details of the bid which is due to be made to the Government’s Local Sustainable Transport Plan (LSTP).

A total of £560m in funding is being made available nationally up until 2014/15 under the LSTP, and bids have to be submitted before a deadline of February 24.

Successful bids will have to meet key criteria to show that they cut carbon emissions while also boosting economic regeneration.

The expansion of the tourism sector is seen as vital to helping communities in the national park and along the Yorkshire coast weather the economic storm.

Whitby’s tourism industry is worth about £40m a year to the local economy, and provides an estimated 2,000 jobs – almost 30 per cent of the town’s overall workforce.

The North York Moors National Park Authority’s planning policy officer, Barry Hearsey, said: “The links between Whitby and the Esk Valley are at the moment very limited, and we are aiming to encourage more people to get to see what is one of the national park’s hidden gems.

“The Esk Valley is not as well visited as some other parts of the national park, and we want to provide more transport links but in a sustainable manner.

“These sort of opportunities to secure funding do not come around very often, and there is a significant amount of money that is being made available by the Government.

“We have to be pragmatic as we are up against other schemes from across the whole country, but we do feel that we are putting together a very good bid that meets the requirements set out by the Government.”

The Yorkshire Post revealed in June that North Yorkshire County Council had submitted outline proposals to the Government to try to secure £10m in funding under the LTSP.

If the bids are successful, the money is due to be shared between two separate over-arching projects, one focusing on the Yorkshire coast and the other on Harrogate.

The centrepiece of both schemes would be a park and ride development in both Harrogate and Whitby, although the plans would also incorporate a range of sustainable transport initiatives to improve bus and rail services and encourage cycling.

More details of the Yorkshire coast scheme emerged yesterday including plans for the electric bike hire network to mirror the success of similar schemes in the national parks covering the Peak District and Lake District.

Shuttle bus services would run between the park and ride site in Whitby to villages along the Esk Valley to the national park authority’s Moors Centre at Danby.

The move would provide at a welcome boost to public transport after it emerged earlier this year that the Moorsbus initiative was having to be scrapped amid the Government’s cuts.

The North York Moors National Park Authority’s grant is being reduced by 21.5 per cent from £5.1m in the current financial year to £4.3m by 2014/15.

One of the hardest-hit services is the Moorsbus scheme – which carries about 10,000 passengers each year – and is due to be ditched at the end of October 2013.

Six full-time and six part-time posts are also expected to be lost between now and April 2014, including one of the authority’s directors.

Members of the authority will meet on Monday next week to discuss the proposed bid to secure funding under the LSTP.

Other organisations involved in pulling together the bid include the Esk Valley Railway Development Company, the Electric Bicycle Network, Northern Rail and Network Rail.

If successful, the authority will spend £30,000 on boosting links between existing cycle routes, bus stops and railway stations to make the new services more appealing to both visitors and residents.

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