'PLAN ahead' is the message being sent out by Yorkshire councils ahead of the Tour de Yorkshire next month.

Local authorities in North and East Yorkshire have published a list of road closures which will be in place for the inaugural event, and urged people to plan their journey's in advance.

North Yorkshire's county council leader John Weighell said: “This is a fantastic event which builds on last year’s Tour de France, and once again the benefits to North Yorkshire will be enormous, both in the immediate term and the longer term.”

“We want to make sure that everything is in place to make it a huge success and ensures the race passes off smoothly for everyone – for the competitors, for the spectators, and for all other residents and highways users.

“We are doing all we can to make sure that it is successful – and that as far as possible, disruption for everyone who needs to use our roads over the weekend of the 1 – 3 May, is kept to a minimum”.

On Friday, May 1 the race starts in Bridlington, where a Park and Ride car park will be in operation at South Cliff car park.

Regular free buses and land trains will run into the town centre, and there will be entertainment including big screens to watch the race, and mountain bike displays in the town centre throughout the day.

The race then moves into North Yorkshire south of Filey before heading to Pickering via East Ayton, Hackness and Dalby Forest, and on to Rosedale, the Esk Valley, Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay finishing on Scarborough seafront at around 4.30pm.

In Whitby there will be road closures around the harbour area from 12pm-5pm, while the rest of the race route will be under the rolling road closures for around an hour at a time.

Whitby will also have a Park and Ride service, as well as pay and display car parks at The Abbey Headland and West Cliff.

In Scarborough, Royal Albert Drive will be closed from 8am on Thursday, April 30 and other roads will be closed on race day. Park and ride services will run, but buses may be disrupted between 3pm and 5pm.

Drivers are being warned of queueing traffic on the roads around the coastal towns, and are asked to be extra vigilant of fans cycling to and from the race locations. No parking will be allowed on the race route.

Full details of road closures and parking arrangements are available on the councils' websites.