Warning over traffic tailbacks as next phase of Whitby £2.8m park and ride to start

North Yorkshire County Council has announced that it will be introducing the controls from today to allow a new roundabout to be built to provide access to the site.

The three-way traffic signal controls will only be used while the contractor is working and will be removed each night and at the weekend. The council has said it envisages that the traffic management system will last for about six weeks. The council’s executive member for highways, Coun Gareth Dadd, said: “We will make every effort to keep traffic moving during this construction period.

“In the long term, this new facility will be crucial to supporting tourism in the town.”

Work on the £2.8m project in Whitby, located at the junction of the A171/B1460 junction, got underway on site earlier this month and the park and ride is due to be up and running from Easter weekend – in time for the start of the major holiday season.

Coun Dadd has claimed that the proposed park-and-ride site will provide the foundation for a strategy to free up the North Yorkshire coast’s creaking transport infrastructure.

The county council has, however, faced a wave of criticism for its parking policies in the town.

The authority announced in November that it was overhauling original blueprints to introduce on-street parking charges and permit parking throughout the seaside town in the wake of a public outcry.

Opponents fear the scheme will undermine the tourism industry, with scores of independent traders who form the bedrock of Whitby’s economy losing custom if visitor numbers dwindle.

The revised plans will mean that just over a third of Whitby, focused on the town centre and the famous West Cliff, will be covered under one overarching zone. 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.

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