Social distancing and active travel

Working with our partners in district and borough councils, the police and the national parks, we’ve put measures in place to help businesses open safely, enable residents to maintain social distancing while shopping and encourage more active travel like cycling and walking.

As well as signs on streets reminding people to stay two metres apart, this also means putting barriers and cones on roads to widen the footpaths and the temporary closure of some roads and parking bays to leave enough space for people to practice social distancing. 

If you have any suggestions for further social distancing or active travel measures please contact us.

Make a suggestion

Active travel fund

Following the Covid-19 lockdown in early 2020, the Department for Transport (DfT) made funding available through the Emergency Active Travel Fund (EATF) to provide temporary infrastructure to aid social distancing. 

As a result, schemes were rolled out across the country. The DfT has since announced a second round of funding made available to local authorities – this is known as the Active Travel Fund (ATF). Active Travel funding is being made available to spend in 2021/22, and is intended to enhance streets, while providing space to enable non motorised users to observe social distancing.

We  bid for the funding (pdf / 445 KB), after assessing 300 schemes across the county, including some received from the public, interest groups and county councillors.

Four schemes included in the bid, to improve facilities for cyclists and pedestrians in Whitby and Harrogate, will go ahead following our acceptance of more than £1m in funding from the Department for Transport’s Active Travel Fund.

Public Engagement

As part of developing our proposals, a programme of consultation is a condition of the Department for Transport funding and must be undertaken before any scheme can be built (read the  active travel fund consultation plan (pptx / 162 KB)). We are engaging with the local communities to get their thoughts about the proposed pedestrian and cycle improvements.

We have already undertaken a period of initial engagement in February, during which we asked for some details of people’s travel patterns and for some initial thoughts on the potential active travel corridors in Whitby and Harrogate. 

The feedback provided has been extremely helpful in allowing us to identify areas of interest within the community, assisting the Council in developing draft designs, which reflect the comments, and feedback that we received.

This round of consultation is to engage with communities about the draft designs and the opportunities or challenges they may present and we welcome any feedback on them.

It is important to note that the type of improvements we deliver is yet to be determined and could be influenced by the feedback we receive. The information that you provide will be used to further develop the designs before a decision is made on which schemes to take forward.

The proposals

The proposals for each scheme are shown on the maps below. The intention is to improve access to the town centre, encourage uptake of active modes and allow more space for social distancing.

Please note that the Transforming Cities Fund proposals for Harrogate town centre are a separate project and are being consulted on separately to these proposals.

Whitby Cycle Improvements

• A cycle improvement corridor is proposed to connect the Whitby Park and Ride site at Victoria Farm with Whitby town centre.
• The route would be provided along Guisborough Road (A171) and Mayfield Road.
• At Prospect Hill, it is anticipated that cyclists would continue to the town centre along local routes.

Harrogate Cycle Improvements

Three cycle improvement corridors are planned in and around Harrogate:

1. A59 (Harrogate Road, Knaresborough) between Badger Mount and Maple Close

2. Oatlands Drive between Hookstone Road and Knaresborough Road,

3. Victoria Avenue near the County Court, between the A61 (West Park) and Station Parade.

Have your Say

If you would like to make comments about the proposed route corridors and what you’d like to see by way of improvements you can do so from 22 March to 12 April 2021 by completing our quick and easy survey.

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are currently unable to hold consultation events in person, as we would normally.

Have your say

Paper copies are available by emailing your contact information to ltp@northyorks.gov.uk.

Public meetings on Harrogate and Whitby active travel schemes

We have organised public meetings to hear the views of Harrogate and Whitby residents on proposals to improve cycling and walking routes in the town. The meetings will be held online due to government restrictions around Covid-19. The draft designs for the schemes will be available for viewing and comment ahead of this date.

• The meeting to discuss the Harrogate proposals took place on March 29 between 3pm and 5pm
• You will be able to access the meeting to discuss the Whitby proposals on March 31 between 3pm and 4pm

Frequently asked questions

Read further information about the proposals in our frequently asked questions.

Emergency Active Travel Fund: Temporary Measures

Following the Covid-19 lockdown in early 2020, the Department for Transport (DfT) made funding available through the Emergency Active Travel Fund (EATF) to provide temporary infrastructure to aid social distancing. As a result, schemes were rolled out across the county these included;

Filey

Great Ayton

Harrogate

Knaresborough

Malham

Northallerton - Wednesdays only

Richmond

Scarborough

Selby

Sherburn-in-Elmet

Skipton

Tadcaster

Whitby