Decision to be made on Whitby cycling and walking scheme
Councillors are being recommended to progress three schemes aimed at enhancing facilities for cyclists and pedestrians across Whitby and Harrogate.
Councillors are being recommended to progress three schemes aimed at enhancing facilities for cyclists and pedestrians across Whitby and Harrogate.
North Yorkshire County Council has received £1,011,750 from the Department for Transport’s Active Travel Fund to improve the infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians.
The grant, which must be spent during the 2021/22 financial year, is earmarked to fund work along a number of corridors to improve access to the town centres for cyclists and pedestrians, allowing for more space for social distancing.
Following the second round of public consultation, the schemes recommended for further appraisal and design are:
• A59 (Harrogate Road, Knaresborough) between Badger Mount and Maple Close;
• Victoria Avenue, Harrogate, near the County Court, between the A61 (West Park) and Station Parade;
• Guisborough Road and Mayfield Road, Whitby.
If approved the Oatlands Drive scheme would not proceed through the Active Travel Fund but instead an Oatlands Constituency Feasibility Study would be commissioned to reassess opportunities for improvements across a wider area than the current Active Travel Fund scheme allows.
Some of the savings made by dropping this scheme would be used to investigate and deliver an extended Whitby scheme along Mayfield Road.
County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Access, said:
“I am grateful to all those residents who made the effort to respond to our recent consultation on the proposals for the four schemes. We received thousands of views and many attended our public meetings too.
"The three schemes recommended to be taken forward were generally well received by residents. The Oatlands Drive scheme, however, and in particular the one-way filters for motorised vehicles, proved less popular and many local residents expressed their opposition. Since a condition of the Active Travel Fund is that each scheme should have public support, it is recommended that the Oatlands Drive proposal be withdrawn.
"The work done so far on this scheme will not be wasted since it has highlighted opportunities to deliver improvements more widely in that area. That is why it is proposed to carry out a feasibility study focused on the Oatlands area later this year."
The recommendations will be considered at a meeting of the County Council’s Business and Environmental Services Executive Members on Friday, May 21.
For more information please visit www.northyorks.gov.uk/socialdistancingandactivetravel