NORTH Yorkshire Council will ask for £90,000 from the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority to help progress the delayed Engine Shed Lane link road scheme in Skipton.

Councillors heard at a meeting on Thursday last week that errors in flood modelling by the Environment Agency have meant designs now need to be re-done by consultants.

A new road to the A629 Skipton bypass has been in the pipeline since 2017 as part of the former Craven District Council’s £4.68 million Skipton Employment and Housing Growth scheme.

The council’s redeveloped waste management depot is on Engine Shed Lane and it’s hoped with a link road, council bin wagons will be able to get straight onto the bypass without going through Carleton New Road.

Progress has been slow, however, and an officer updated councillors on the Skipton and Ripon area committee meeting of North Yorkshire Council in Skipton on Thursday about the current status of the scheme.

Sharon Sunter, the council's economic development manager, said the authority is preparing a bid into the combined authority, later confirmed to be £90,000, which the council was hopeful would be accepted by Labour mayor David Skaith.

The money would be spent on consultants at WSP to redo flood risk assessments for the area.

Ms Sunter said: “The Environment Agency reviewed flood modelling on that site and they found an inaccuracy, so they had to address it and redo the modelling. That impacts all the flood risk assessments we need to carry on for the planning process to continue.

“We hope to have additional money from the combined authority to redo the designs to move it forward. It’s included as part of the priority projects.”

Councillor Simon Myers (Con, Mid-Craven) said he was disappointed that the work on flooding had turned out to be “not fit for purpose.”

He added: “Engine Shed Lane is one of the longest-running songs on the Craven playbook.”

Ms Sunter also gave an update on Langcliffe Quarry, near Settle, and progress on the development of the site as a visitor destination with the creation of a 'coherent and comprehensive interpretative trail'.

The former waste management depot has been redeveloped as a business centre with new build and restored buildings, which was officially opened in January last year, and is also next to a Hoffmann Kiln.

The report to last week's meeting states that new interpretation panels will go up at the site.