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12
Jul 2021
Plans to bid for more cycling and walking funding
North Yorkshire County Council looks set to bid for further government funding for walking and cycling projects.
Louise Neale, transport planning officer at the authority, told a Transport scrutiny meeting this morning that the Department for Transport had announced plans for further funding last month.
While no detail has been revealed on the bid, officers are expected to submit an application for funding by August.
Ms Neale told councillors this morning that a report on the bid would be made public later this week.
She said:
Cllr Don Mackenzie, executive county councillor for access, told the Stray Ferret that he hoped the government would award the county council "roughly the same" funding as in the last bid.
He said:
Cllr Mackenzie said no detail was yet available on what projects would be included in the bid, but added that Harrogate had "its fair share" in the last tranche of funding.
The county council has already outlined two projects in Harrogate as part of a previous bid to the government's active travel scheme. A third is planned in Whitby.
Read more:
- The woman shaping the Harrogate district’s roads
- Controversial Oatlands Drive active travel scheme scrapped
Ministers awarded the county council £1,011,750 last year to help fund the projects, despite the authority bidding for more.
It includes plans for cycle lanes and junction upgrades on the A59 between Harrogate and Knaresborough, as well as a scheme on Victoria Avenue in the town centre.
Meanwhile, a proposal to make Oatlands Drive more friendly to cyclists met with fierce backlash from local residents.
The plan originally included a scheme to make the whole of Oatlands Drive one-way. However, this was dropped in March after 57% of respondents to a council consultation opposed the scheme.
The scheme moved forward and included making nearby St Winifred’s Road and St Hilda’s Road one way but this was similarly unpopular with residents.
In May, the council decided to withdraw the scheme altogether from its bid.
Instead, the council has commissioned an ‘Oatlands Constituency Feasibility Study’, which it says will “reassess opportunities” for infrastructure improvements across a wider area than the government scheme allows.
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