PROPOSALS to prioritise a selection of council-maintained roads for upgrades  in North Yorkshire and York have been welcomed as part of plans to strengthen transport links.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive will tomorrow (Tuesday) consider pushing forward a set of routes the authority has developed with City of York Council which provide strategic connection between towns, cities or regions, which give access to an important location or carry high frequency bus services.

The mayoral combined authority will then be asked to approve and coordinate the Key Route Network (KRN), which is a stipulation of the devolution agreement for York and North Yorkshire.

The KRN does not include routes that form part of the Strategic Road Network that are managed and maintained by National Highways, such as the A1(M), M62, A64, A66(T), A168(T) and the A19(T).

The majority of the proposed routes are in North Yorkshire and include the A684, from the A19 to the Cumbria boundary, the A658 Harrogate bypass to Pool, the A65 between the Bradford boundary and Lancashire boundary, the A645, from the A1041 to the M62 and the A64 into Scarborough town centre.

Other routes in the proposal include the A629 from Skipton to the Bradford boundary and the A6131 Skipton town centre to A629.

The proposed KRN also includes the A6068 Cross Hills to Lancashire, the A59 from Skipton to Lancashire boundary, the A59 from Blossom Street in York to Skipton and the A56, from the A59 to Lancashire boundary.

An officers’ report to the meeting states it is expected funding for maintenance schemes on the KRN will be part of the usual local highway authority funding streams, which in North Yorkshire is £37 million a year.

However, following the cancellation of the HS2 link between Birmingham and Manchester the Department for Transport has proposed £31.42 million a year more funding for upgrades in North Yorkshire until 2033/34.

The authority’s Green Party leader Councillor Kevin Foster, said while there was no detail about what the KRN would mean, but he welcomed the inclusion of routes such as the A6136 from the A1(M) into Catterick Garrison, for which he hoped to be involved in talks leading to a bypass.

He said: “I have been campaigning about the A6136 since 2019 – we have got one of the biggest garrisons in the world and we need to get our troops in an out quickly should they need to do it.

“We have got lots of housing being built along the route and most importantly with the new services at Coronation Park and the new health centre, it’s no good having these places if we can’t access them.”

The council’ executive member for highways, Councillor Keane Duncan, has been approached for comment.