North Yorkshire County Council has unanimously approved a plan today that sets out transport strategies for the next 30 years.
As the Highway Authority for all adopted roads and footways within North Yorkshire, the County Council is responsible for the management, maintenance and improvement of more than 5,700 miles of road, 2,500 miles of footways, 2,000 bridges and thousands of other highways assets (apart from motorways and one or two major trunk roads).
The Local Transport Plan 2016-2045 (LTP4) will replace the previous plan, which ends in March.
It looks at the short (0-5 years), medium (6-15 years) and long term (16-30 years).
In preparing the plan, the County Council consulted the public, stakeholders and partner organisations. This showed that boosting the economy, safety, access to essential services and the impact of transport on the environment remained important.
To read the Transport Plan
Based on this and other data, the plan sets out five key objectives:
- contributing to economic growth through reliable and efficient transport networks;
- improving road and transport safety;
- improving equality of opportunity by facilitating access to services;
- managing the adverse impact of transport on the environment; and
- providing healthier transport opportunities.
County Councillor Don Mackenzie, North Yorkshire’s Executive Member for Highways and Public Transport said:
This new plan takes the long view as well as setting out short-term aims.
North Yorkshire has one of the largest transport networks in the country, spread across a vast largely rural area, but with one or two areas of serious traffic congestion like Harrogate.
We need transport networks that are fit for purpose to support the wellbeing of our residents and the economic future of our region with its towns, market towns and villages, with its industry, its tourism, its cultural and heritage development.
The plan considers transport at all levels. For highway maintenance, for example, this will range from how the county council will decide which individual potholes to repair to which bypasses need resurfacing.
For improvements it will range from how and where the county council will install dropped kerbs to help wheelchair users to cross the road, to where it plans to build new road schemes; to how the council will consider the needs of a single street, village or town to how transport in North Yorkshire can contribute towards the Northern Powerhouse.
Among the key priorities is improving east-west connectivity by upgrading parts of the A59 and A64.
