NEARLY £2 million is due to be spent on helping to combat the growing problem of speeding cars and traffic in the North York Moors National Park.

In a report to the park authority David Arnold-Forster, the Park Officer, says the money will be spent on providing facilities for cyclists, controlling parking, park and ride sites, rail improvements, sign-posting, traffic calming in villages and building "gateways" at the entrances to moorland villages.

Priority is to be given in the first of the five years of the scheme to improving safety on the A170 Scarborough to Thirsk road and on the B1257 Bilsdale road.

However, Mr Arnold-Forster has told the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions that a "carrot and not a stick approach" is needed because tourists whose cars account for 70 per cent of the traffic in the park, provide income for the picturesque region of £120 million a year.

More investment is needed in public transport, says Mr Arnold-Forster, but it should not be subsidised by tolls although more "subtle means" of charging recreational users and traffic were being considered.

He says that to force people to use public transport by increasing fuel costs is not the answer. "It amounts to a punishment for rural dwellers," he says. Many parts of the more remote areas of the park have little or no bus service.

The new strategy includes 14 gateways each costing £10,000 at Hutton-le-Hole, Castleton, Lockwood Beck, Sutton Bank, Helmsley, Bilsdale, Birk Brow, Kingthorpe, Cloughton, Hawsker and Blue Bank (Sleights) while special treatment is to be given to the busy moorland roads - the A170 Scarborough to Pickering, A169 Pickering to Whitby and A171 Whitby to Guisborough roads.

Four villages - Newton-on-Rawcliffe, Hutton-le-Hole, Chop Gate and Castleton are to get traffic calming at £25,000 per village, while traffic strategies are to be produced for Whitby and Pickering.

Better signing is to be installed at Cropton, Lythe, Rosedale Abbey, Robin Hood's Bay and Helmsley.

Mr Arnold-Forster warns: "If traffic growth goes unchecked the fabric of the National Park will be permanently damaged."

Trying to meet demand by building more car parks and carrying out road improvements could destroy important habitats and spoil the landscape.

In addition, he says, upgrading roads in the park will lead to increased usage especially of through traffic and will in turn cause pollution and health risks and ruin the very scenery tourists go to enjoy.

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