YORK’S bid to secure millions of pounds of Government cash for a congestion-cutting scheme is set to face competition from more than 40 rivals across the UK.

City of York Council has thrown its hat into the ring for a share of a £630 million Westminster funding pot which would allow three new Park&Ride sites to be built on the edge of the city.

The facilities near the A59 at Poppleton, next to Wigginton Road at Clifton Moor and as a replacement for the existing Askham Bar site would be the first phase of the Access York scheme, designed to prevent the city becoming gridlocked, and The Press Get York Moving campaign is backing the council’s bid.

After Access York missed out on a £23 million Government grant for the project last year, it was placed in a “development pool” for potential future funding by the Department for Transport (DfT), which will ultimately decide which schemes are approved.

A full bid will be handed in by the start of September, but a report which will go before the council next week said the pool now included 45 projects with a total cost of £945 million – more than £300 million above the funding limit.

However, council leader Andrew Waller said he believed the work already done on Access York would put it in a prime position.

He said: “I have been making the case to Government ministers throughout this process that tackling congestion is part of the economic development of the city and feeds into sustainable transport and jobs growth.

“The campaign has been supported by the York Economic Partnership and several large companies and Access York passed all the hurdles set under the previous Government before being caught up in a trolley-dash of funding promises.

“Although there is tough competition, we have a strong scheme and a sound business case. We are also in negotiations about how private sector money could be involved in Access York, as that would strengthen our case.”

A decision on which schemes are allocated DfT funding will be made by the end of the year. If York succeeds, the Park&Ride sites could be operational by mid-2014.