TRANSPORT bosses in York have taken their next step towards resurrecting a vital congestion-busting scheme which would see three new Park&Ride sites created.

City of York Council has confirmed to the Government that it will be submitting a fresh bid for funding for the first phase of the Access York project and has increased the amount of money devoted to getting it back on track.

The Press’s Get York Moving campaign is backing the authority’s aim of securing Westminster cash to build the sites near the A59 at Poppleton, at Clifton Moor and as a replacement for the existing Askham Bar facilities, seen as crucial to preventing York being choked by traffic.

The city missed out on a £23 million Government grant for the scheme last year but the council is now preparing a fresh funding bid, which needs to be ready by autumn.

It will face competition from 21 other projects for a share of a £600 million pot.

Coun Steve Galloway, executive member for city strategy, will next week be asked to rubber-stamp raising the Access York budget for the current financial year by £33,000, taking it up to £418,000.

This would allow work on the final bid to be carried out more quickly and cover land purchases and design work at Askham Bar.

An Access York update report by project manager Paul Thackray also recommended setting £67,000 aside during 2011/12 to meet further costs for the bid and consultancy bills.

“Due to lower costs and slower progress on other schemes across the transport programme, it is anticipated funding will be available to undertake the proposed additional Access York work in 2010/11,” he said in the report.

“The budget to develop the Access York phase one scheme is already in place, but this is now insufficient to cover the costs associated with the preparation of the bid. As this is an ongoing process which was totally unforeseen when the original budget was set, an increase is now requested.”

Mr Thackray said the council aims to submit the bid by July, but the Department for Transport had advised that public consultation should not be carried out at the moment “while in this period of uncertainty”. Should York’s bid succeed, work on the scheme could begin next April.