NYC Climate Report Misleads Councillors about Active Travel Project
A North Yorkshire Council (NYC) report about the council’s progress on its Climate Change Delivery Pathway misleads Councillors on the Transport, Economy, Environment and Enterprise Scrutiny Committee about an active travel project.
Paragraph 5.2.1 of the report deals with active travel. It lists these walking and cycling projects which the council is funding through Active Travel Fund 5:
- signalised pedestrian crossing of the A661 Wetherby Road in Harrogate at its junction with Railway Road (the Sainsbury’s junction)
- parallel crossing of Bilton Lane, Harrogate
- school crossing patrol site in East Ayton
- School Street schemes
The report says:
‘Following NYC’s submission to Active Travel England’s assurance process in March 2025 as part of Active Travel Fund Tranche 5 (£369,709), NYC have now been notified that all schemes submitted have been approved’.
This is not true, according to Active Travel England (ATE). ATE says:
‘ATE works closely with highways authorities to help improve the quality of scheme design in line with national guidance. We use this process to support local authorities, and provide reports for any schemes we assess.
In line with devolution principles, ATE does not approve individual schemes for funding. Decisions on priorities for investment are for individual highways authorities, who are responsible for their local roads’.
ATE has done a Design Review of NYC’s Sainsbury’s junction scheme.
The agency identifies a Policy Conflict – missing the opportunity to join up cycle routes which are on the council’s LCWIP.
The Design Review also identifies multiple Critical Safety Issues with NYC’s junction design, all related to the failure to provide cycle crossing facilities at a busy junction which severs a strategic cycle route.
The overall Junction Assessment Tool score for NYC’s junction design is 17%. If it is 17% safe for active travel, it is 83% dangerous.
NYC says that people on bikes should just get off and push at the junction.
This raises an Equality Act issue, because some people use cycles as a mobility aids and cannot do that.
Active Travel Capability Rating
ATE rates councils’ active travel capability on a scale of 0 to 4. NYC is currently rated Level 1.
The council’s report lets slip that NYC has already completed its 2025 Active Travel Capability self-assessment. It says:
‘We are currently a Level 1 rated authority and have collated significant evidence alongside this year’s submission to attempt to increase our rating to Level 2’.
2025 Capability Ratings seem to be particularly important because they will affect funding over a long period of time. The report says:
‘Councils with higher ratings are eligible to access more funding.
The 2025 Capability Ratings will be used to underpin 4-year authority active travel allocations following Spending Review 2025, and these will be used provided as part of wider integrated and consolidated local transport settlements up to 2029/30′.
NYC’s conduct in relation to the Sainsbury’s junction scheme will negatively affect their Capability Rating. ATE says:
‘Local authority performance in delivering compliant schemes will be taken into account in capability rating exercises, which helps us to tailor future funding and support’.
LCWIPs
The Climate report mentions NYC’s Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs).
It says the council has completed 10 LCWIPs covering all population centres above 10,000; the LCWIPs identify 80 priority corridors.
The trouble is an LCWIP is just a piece of paper, and if there is no drive to get anything built it makes no difference to local people’s ability to get about by bike.
The Harrogate & Knaresborough LCWIP was completed in 2019, and identified four priority corridors. In the 6 years since then, nothing whatsoever has been built. The LCWIP has been gathering dust on a shelf along with all NYC’s other theoretical cycle infrastructure plans.
The Climate report says that design work for one of the corridors, Bilton to Hornbeam Park, is ‘nearing completion’.
It also claims that design work on the A59 ‘missing link’ in the cycle path from High Bridge Knaresborough towards Harrogate is nearly complete.
Kildwick to Silsden Towpath
The report says that NYC managed to surface 2km of canal towpath from Kildwick, near Skipton, to Silsden with a smooth, durable, all-weather self-bind surface.
The path was opened by Mayor David Skaith together with West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin on 16th July 2025.
99 cycle trips per day are made on the towpath, which represents a 129% increase on the previous year.
Local Transport Plan
Work on a Local Transport Plan for the York & North Yorkshire region is continuing, using new DfT guidance on quantifying carbon.
Consultants to work on the LTP were expected to be appointed in early October.
40mph in National Parks and National Landscapes
As part of its Speed Management Strategy, certain minor roads in the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors National Parks, and Nidderdale and the Howardian Hills National Landscapes, could be given 40mph speed limits.
The fact that 8 separate conditions apply before 40mph will be considered suggests that no one should hold their breath.
Greenhouse Gases
The 2023 figures for greenhouse gas emissions in North Yorkshire, which come from DESNZ, show a total of 5,604ktCO2e in 2023.
That represents a 2.17% decline from 2022.
The graphic at the top of the page shows the biggest sources of emissions, which are:
- 33% agriculture
- 30% transport
- 15% domestic
- 11% industry
York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority is currently revising the Routemap to Carbon Negative. This is almost certainly with a view to making it less ambitious.
The report says (para 4.2.4) that a framework will be agreed in November 2025, and there will be a consultation in 2026.