WAYS of tackling congestion around York Station are to be analysed by council officers as they prepare to hold talks with rail companies about improving traffic flows.

City of York Council’s ruling executive yesterday agreed to launch discussions with East Coast and Network Rail in an attempt to ease the traffic at the front of the station.

They will originally look at potential short-term measures before taking a long-term view ahead of a report to the authority’s executive member for city strategy, Coun Steve Galloway.

One of the areas the study will examine will be improving visibility for traffic turning right when coming out of Tea Room Square to the side of the station.

At the same Guildhall meeting yesterday, the authority also confirmed it is to look at devising a business case for mobile speed cameras in the city. It wants to establish a small-scale pilot project which would run for 12 months and allow the cameras’ effectiveness in reducing deaths and serious injuries on the region’s roads to be assessed.

As revealed by The Press earlier this week, the cost of a North Yorkshire-wide scheme is estimated at between £3.1 million and £3.6 million. But Government figures have shown more than £10 million could be saved by making roads safer.

The executive also reaffirmed its commitment to kick-starting the stalled York Central development and agreed that it should “take a proactive approach to public funding for the site” and investigate alternative ways of making the project a reality.

The scheme has been dogged by recession-related problems and ground to a halt last autumn after the economic climate rendered the chances of finding a firm to take the project forward impossible.

The council also agreed to hold talks with potential providers on the issue of creating a super-fast broadband network for York, and reached an agreement in principle to co-operate with Fibrecity Holdings – which is looking at the possibility of making the city the first in the north of England for its technology – and other companies to allow access to the authority’s records so such a network could be devised.