WHILE good infrastructure is vital to any economy, many of the roads in England’s largest county are in urgent need of repairs. It’s a hurdle to growth, but could soon be a thing of the past thanks to the welcome announcement of a £25 million windfall for North Yorkshire County Council to boost its highways maintenance programme.

This is a major development and it comes on the back of equally good news: 1,300 are positions to be created in York. These will be the right sort of jobs; skilled, well paid and at the cutting edge of technology.

The lion’s share will be created at the Food & Environment Research Agency site near Sand Hutton, but in yet another exciting development at the University of York, a hub to host and support a number of biotechnology companies will create 500 similarly prestigious roles.

Then there is the Olympia Park development in Selby which is set to benefit from almost £3.5million in Government funding. Again that is going to yield hundreds of new jobs.

Not so long ago we were looking for green shoots of recovery in North Yorkshire. Now, it seems, we’re beginning to see full blooms.