Road plans could be under threat due to budget cuts at council
Millions of pounds worth of schemes for axe
A big question mark hangs over the future of several multi-million pound road schemes in the Scarborough and Ryedale area because of County Council budget cuts. Some 23 schemes are to be reviewed by the council’s highways department, including bypasses for Burniston and Cloughton, Muston, Hinderwell near Whitby, a new road around the south of Malton and Norton and another on the A170 around Pickering, Middleton and Aislaby.
The complete list of schemes - each costing more than £5 million - include bypasses, relief roads and larger bridges, said David Bowe, director of business and environmental services for North Yorkshire County Council in a report to councillors.
He said the authority had now produced a Strategic Transport Prospectus to spell out how NYCC would work with the Government, Transport for the North, and the Northern City Regions to bring about improved transport links for North Yorkshire, England’s biggest county, to contribute to and share in the economic benefits of the Northern Powerhouse.
One of the top three priorities, said Mr Bowe, is improvements to the A64 between York and Scarborough, a Highways England scheme, especially at the Hope Grove roundabout but it was hoped that the A64 could be dualled between the busy roundabout and the Jinnah Restaurant which would link with the existing dualled road leading to Whitwell-on-the-Hill.
The county’s transport, economy and environment scrutiny committee was told that work on the major scheme was on-going and will be put to the Department of Transport to enable NYCC to bid for funding.
“In addition, the county council has over the past 40 years, developed basic proposals for a wide range of major schemes.
“They are invariably local bypasses or diversion routes around communities, many of which have strong local support from communities,” said Mr Bowe. Mr Bowe said a study was now being made of all the schemes which would confirm the category for each of them on the major schemes reserves list.