York's £22m transport project backed in Chancellor’s Autumn Statement

The Access York plans to replace Askham Bar Park&Ride with a larger facility and to create a new site on the A59 near Poppleton were named as one of 20 major schemes given “accelerated approval” for funding in the National Infrastructure Plan, announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement yesterday.

The move is a boost to the Get York Moving campaign, launched by The Press after the Government pulled funding from the project in June 2010. The campaign was backed by local politicians as well as Nick Clegg and David Blunkett, as well as the city’s biggest employers, including Shepherd Group, York Hospital, CPP and Benenden.

Ken Hesketh, chief executive of Benenden, said they would be well-placed to benefit from the A59 scheme. He said: “A Park&Ride route running close to Holgate Park Drive will ease our own localised transport and parking issues, help reduce pollution around our complex and show that businesses in York are being supported by transport planning.”

York Central MP Hugh Bayley said: “It’s a welcome boost to jobs in York, short-term construction jobs and longer term by bringing more visitors from out of town to spend their money in the city.”

Coun Dave Merrett, cabinet member for city strategy at City of York Council, said: “This will take a further 300,000 cars off York’s roads, reduce congestion levels; facilitate the development of the British Sugar and York Central sites, and reduce York’s carbon output by 1,500 tonnes per year.”

Planning permission has already been granted for 1,100 spaces at Askham Bar and 600 spaces at Poppleton Bar, and the council submitted its final bid to the Department for Transport in September.

The project also includes an upgrade of the A59/A1237 roundabout and bus priorities along Boroughbridge Road.

Julian Sturdy, MP for York outer, said he had supported the principle of expanding the Park&Ride sites across York, with the exception of the proposal for Upper and Nether Poppleton due to the potential impact on traffic flow in the villages.

He said: “I continue to hold such concerns but I shall now work with local residents and councillors to mitigate against any negative consequences.”

The council will now complete the remaining legal and procurement processes before a request for full and final approval, and construction is planned to start early in 2013 with the sites opening by summer 2014.

Key points in announcement

THE freezing of a fuel duty increase of 3p planned for January is one of the crucial announcemernts made in Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement.

There are also plans to help small businesses by freeing up credit and train fare hikes have also been pegged back.

But among the grimmer revelations from the Chancellor yesterday were predictions of lower growth in the UK, coupled with higher unemployment, with more than 700,000 public-sector jobs forecast to go.

Workers in the public sector also faced the prospect of a cap on wage rises after a current pay freeze ends, while the rise in the state pension age is to be brouight forweard from 2034 to 2026.

The Autumn Statement included:

• 3p fuel duty increase planned for January 2012 delayed until August

• Unemployment forecast to increase from 8.1 per cent this year to 8.7 per cent in 2012, and as many as 710,000 jobs could be lost in the public sector by 2016/17

• Rise in the state pension age to 67 brought forward from 2034 to 2026

• Basic state pensions to rise by £5.30 next year to £107.45 and working age benefits will be increased by 5.2 per cent

• Cap of one per cent on public-sector pay rises when current wage freeze ends

• Train fare rises in the new year pegged back to six per cent, rather than planned eight per cent

• Levy on banks will be increased to ensure it raises the Treasury’s £2.5 billion annual target

• Growth forecasts cut to 0.9 per cent for this year and borrowing expected to go up by £111 billion over the next five years

• About 260,000 two-year-olds from poorer households to get free nursery education – twice the previous total

• Small businesses to benefit from up to £40 billion in state-backed loans in “credit easing” measures aimed at unclogging the flow of credit in the UK

• Structural deficit not to be eliminated until 2016/17, according to predictions – two years later than forecast in March

Welcome for moves to support business

INITIATIVES to support businesses, announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, were welcomed by business leaders in North Yorkshire.

The York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership (YNYLEP) said it welcomed the large infrastructure projects, the extension of the Regional Growth Fund and measures to help small and micro businesses in the area, particularly the help with business financing through the Loan Guarantee Scheme.

Barry Dodd, chairman of YNYLEP, said: “It’s great that the Government is doing this and it will undoubtedly help, but there is still an issue with businesses actually accessing bank finance.”

There was also some welcome support for rural tourism, in the form of a £25m funding pot, which the LEP said it would look to make the most of.

Simon Williams, North Yorkshire regional chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “Taken as a package, the announcements in the Autumn Statement address many of the concerns raised by small businesses and are therefore to be welcomed.

“The key now is for the Government to be consistent, and set to the task of translating these policy intentions into tangible actions on the ground.”

Weathering the storm or reduced to tatters?

THE Chancellor told MPs his package offered “leadership for tough times” to take Britain “safely through the storm”.

“Much of Europe now appears to be heading into a recession caused by a chronic lack of confidence in the ability of countries to deal with their debts,” he said.

“We will do whatever it takes to protect Britain from this debt storm while doing all we can to build the foundations of future growth.”

But Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said the Government’s economic and fiscal strategy was “in tatters” and the country had “all of the pain and none of the gain” from Mr Osborne’s austerity programme.

“After 18 months in office, the verdict is in,” said Mr Balls. “Plan A has failed and it has failed colossally.”

The influential Institute for Fiscal Studies highlighted the prospect of further spending cuts in 2015-16 and 2016-17 to balance the books.

Director Paul Johnson said Mr Osborne had ended up in “exactly the place he wanted to avoid” by being forced to extend austerity beyond the next general election.

“Until now we had been thinking of four years of cuts as unprecedented in modern times,” he said. “Six years looks even more extraordinary.

“Mr Osborne has had to pencil in £15 billion of additional cuts by 2016-17 in order for his plans to be consistent with his own fiscal mandate.”

Mr Johnson suggested Mr Osborne was “keeping his fingers crossed” the economy’s fortunes would change before he was to spell out the detail of more cuts