Ryedale to receive £4m to get traffic moving in Pickering, Malton and Norton (From Gazette & Herald)

Ryedale to receive £4m to get traffic moving in Pickering, Malton and Norton

11:10am Wednesday 6th May 2009

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RYEDALE is to get a £4 million cash injection to remove three infamous traffic bottlenecks in Pickering, Malton and Norton, and to improve public transport.

Of that, £2 million has been approved by North Yorkshire County Council for the long-awaited Brambling Fields interchange at the Norton end of the Malton bypass on the A64, on top of £800,000 already agreed for the next financial year.

A further £1 million has been allocated to a scheme to improve the Vivis Lane crossroads with The Ropery and the busy A170 in Pickering, seen as one of the main causes of traffic queues in the market town.

Richard Flinton, the authority’s corporate director for business and environmental services, said the scheme would go a long way towards tackling congestion issues in the three towns and added that the funding had been allocated from the Regional Transport Board for priority local schemes.

Coun Keith Knaggs, leader of Ryedale District Council, said: “We have campaigned hard with local people for these schemes.

“This is fantastic news for the economic and environmental future of the whole district.”

In Pickering, supermarket Lidl hopes to build a store at the Vivis Lane junction. County Coun Greg White said: “The people of Pickering desperately want another supermarket but they also want the junction improved. Highways and Lidl are now talking to each other but they need to start listening as well. A workable compromise which satisfies all parties is surely achievable.”

Coun Howard Keal, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Ryedale District Council, said it was “absolutely crucial” to safeguard the town from gridlock.

Meanwhile, another scheme, still to be approved, will see £1 million spent on improving public transport and reducing congestion in the twin towns.

Malton’s mayor, Coun David Lloyd-Williams, said: “I welcome the news that money will be released which will benefit traffic movement in this community.

“However, there needs to be a close examination of the benefits and drawbacks that would accrue from the Brambling Fields project when compared with other highway projects for which the community has also been seeking. For example the York road bypass link, at Musley Bank, as well as the Broughton Road interchange in order to ensure that the money being released will benefit greater part of the community over the next 20 years.

“But any finance coming out of the blue like this, is to be welcomed.”

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