YORK'S transport chief has insisted the council is committed to boosting walking and cycling as he battled to salvage elements of two active travel schemes.

Coun Andy D’Agorne said he shared the frustrations of campaigners after a council report recommended a cycling and walking route between Wheldrake and Heslington and improvements to the A1237 were scrapped.

Rob Ainsley, from York Cycle Campaign, said York had been given £1.2m in the last three rounds of government funding.

“The record of delivering these schemes is terrible,” he added. “No major cycle scheme has reached consultation stage, let alone completion.”

Coun D’Agorne admitted that the council had “significantly underestimated the likely cost of delivering those schemes” when bidding for funding.

A council report said that the A1237 scheme – connecting Rawcliffe with Poppleton and Knapton, as well as providing a link to Manor School – was “not viable” due to engineering considerations

But Coun D’Agorne, executive member for transport, asked council officers to go away and look at the possibility of building a new bridge for cyclists and pedestrians over the River Ouse and rail line.

“If there was to be an accident and that vehicle was travelling at 60mph, there’s not much chance of you surviving a collision,” he said.

“We owe it to parents and pupils at Manor School to find ways to improve the situation as quickly as possible and if that involves working up a scheme for a separate pedestrian and cycle bridge, so be it. I don’t see that as being mutually exclusive from dualling the ring road.”

Council officers told Coun D’Agorne a decision to scrap an off-road route from Wheldrake and Heslington was “purely about the funding” as they expected it to cost around £2m.

The report called for the cash earmarked for the scheme to be used elsewhere, but Coun D’Agorne said he wanted to get advice from transport bodies on how best to deliver the project in the longer term.

Land ownership is a stumbling block for the project as it does not yet have full support from landowners.

Coun D’Agorne asked officers to look at a smaller scheme that might pave the way for a full, continuous route.

“Clearly we will need to find more funding than we have got allocated, but we need to make the best use of the funding we have to make that step towards making this a viable scheme,” he said.

“I’m not happy with the funding being relocated if it might be needed as match funding for a bigger pot of money to complete the scheme.”

A host of other active travel measures – including better city centre cycle parking and making the Navigation Road low traffic scheme permanent – were approved by Coun D’Agorne.

“We’re not giving up on active travel,” he added. “We are completely committed to delivering these schemes wherever that is possible but we need to work through these processes.”