Work to start on railway station upgrade schemes

A multi-million pound project aiming to transform the areas surrounding two North Yorkshire railway stations is set to begin.

Councillors gave the go-ahead for work to start on the £39.1m Selby and Skipton Station Gateway schemes at a recent meeting, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The projects vow to upgrade facilities for cyclists and pedestrians and improve surrounding public areas.

However, no decision was taken on the £12m Harrogate Station Gateway scheme amid a legal challenge from campaigners.

North Yorkshire Council representatives gave the green light to the two schemes, despite concerns they had been scaled down since they were first presented in 2019.

It also emerged that the Selby project could cost up to £2m more than expected, with councillors agreeing to use money from the authority's reserves if necessary.

Keane Duncan, executive member for highways and transportation, said: "We expect to have spades in the ground for Skipton in March and Selby in June, which is very positive news."

Simon Myers, Mid-Craven councillor, said residents around Skipton had initially seen a project which was "all shiny and new in 2019 and was going to achieve great things".

"Slowly over the passage of time, the pandemic and massive inflation in construction costs mean that what is going to be achieved by this fund is not what we had in mind at the start," he said.

"However, the comfort I draw from is that the rest of the scheme is not shelved, it's not being written off and we're not saying it will never happen."

Myers and Duncan said the second phase of the project would take place in the future once further funding was secured.

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