York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith has stated that the project to fully dual the A64 could cost £500 million and is unlikely to receive funding anytime soon, despite ongoing pressure from local MPs.
The dualling of the A64 road between York and Scarborough is unlikely to happen “any time soon”, the county’s mayor has said.
David Skaith, the elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, has admitted he does not expect funding for full dualling of the A64 between York and Scarborough to materialise any time soon, despite continuing to support improvements to the route.
Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, David Skaith said he would continue to raise the issue with ministers but added:
“I will continue to press the need for it, but I don’t see £500 million coming anytime soon.
“We are working with National Highways as well and looking at what other options there are.”
Mr Skaith told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS):
“I’ve been clear on that for years. This is a project that’s been bandied about for decades. The Conservatives, when they had Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on patch, didn’t do anything about it.
“We’re still working with Government to say it is important, but it’s at least a £500 million project. No one’s got £500 million. Certainly I don’t have.”
It comes as four North Yorkshire MPs recently called on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to make dualling more of the A64 a priority for his government.
The four MPs said the road was a “vital economic artery” linking York with Malton, Scarborough and the Yorkshire coast.
Conservative MPs Kevin Hollinrake, who represents Thirsk and Malton, Sir Alec Shelbrooke, whose seat is Wetherby and Easingwold, and Skipton and Ripon’s Sir Julian Smith, as well as Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said:
“Dualling the A64 would improve safety and journey times, strengthen connections between York and our coastal and rural communities and, crucially, unlock investment, productivity and growth across North Yorkshire.”
Asked what the biggest transport project that he would be pressing ministers to fund is, Mr Skaith said:
“A whole myriad – we’ve done a huge amount of work on Northern Powerhouse Rail to bring further investment into our rail connectivity, and improving the links between York and Scarborough which we will be seeing coming in time as well.”
He added:
“Also, the development of all our stations, which are absolutely critical and bringing that further investment right across the board into transport. As we’ve seen record investment into the region already into road maintenance, road repairs, into active travel, into making our roads safer.
“So we’re already doing a lot more work, but we’ll always be asking Government for more money, particularly for transport.”
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