Whitby campaigners unhappy at missing out on funding to improve town's cycling infrastructure

Stage 4 of the Tour of Britain passes through Whitby.

A Whitby campaign group has hit out after the town missed out on a slice of Government cash to improve the cycling infrastructure in the area.

North Yorkshire County Council recently accepted a £220,780 grant from Active Travel England’s Capability and Ambition Fund, supporting local authorities to build expertise, boost their capabilities to plan active travel infrastructure and support people to change the way they travel.

But a meeting of the council’s executive was told that an additional 25% request (£55,195) to fund development of a Local Cycling Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) in Whitby was not successful, with alternative sources of funding now being looked at.

Campaigners Whitby Community Network, which has previously called for Whitby’s cycling issues to be urgently addressed, says it is disappointed to be no further forward for Whitby and district, with the area “not core to the council’s submission”.

A spokesperson for the group said on its website: "NYCC recently put £13m into a road scheme near Harrogate, when road traffic will allegedly be reducing by 48% by 2030, yet we now have to hope they can afford £55k to develop a cycle infrastructure strategy for Whitby, to give us some hope of cycling an amount more before 2030.

“Being stuck on the edge of the county, the town is continually left behind, as evidenced in many other areas of life here.

"Councils are keen to use images of this town in publicity material to attract yet more tourists – any excuse for showing off this town as being part of North Yorkshire, such as paying for virtue signalling cycle races to come through the town, as if that will encourage people to use a bike on the dangerous roads that we have.

"The health of the resident population is not an urgent priority, seemingly.

"We now find ourselves in a situation where we have a clear reasoned argument for an improvement in cycling infrastructure, fully evidence-based, using all facts that we could prise out of councils, something that would have set us out in a positive direction, yet has still to get us moving forward.”

Last September, Whitby and surrounding villages welcomed Tour of Britain cyclists in stage four of the race.