Councillors to discuss public highway access to Scarborough's Oliver’s Mount race circuit

North Yorkshire Council recently allocated £780,000 of capital funding to procure a design and build contractor to design a “suitable permanent geotechnical design solution” for a “complex land instability problem” at the Scarborough race circuit.

It comes as the council said it was examining the feasibility of an alternative access route to the circuit to be used by members of the public on race days when other roads leading to Oliver’s Mount are closed because they form part of the race track.

Members of the authority’s Scarborough and Whitby Area Committee will discuss the ongoing work to secure and provide public vehicular access to Oliver’s Mount at a meeting on Friday, November 29.

The council said it recognised the importance to the local economy of the motorcycle race events at Oliver’s Mount race circuit in Scarborough and officers had been “working closely” with the event organiser to ensure a “safe means of access using a strictly controlled traffic management solution and regular geotechnical monitoring surveys”.

However, a report prepared for councillors states that as the design solution is “not yet known it is not possible to provide a timescale or cost for delivery”.

But officers emphasised that the allocation of the £780,000 funding for the design stage showed “the high importance being given by the council to delivering a solution”.

In November, officers also met with the event organiser to discuss the implications for the future of events at the race circuit and the latest survey information which “shows that the traffic management solution that has been successfully implemented during events this year is no longer considered possible going forward”.

Oliver’s Mount road race circuit is England’s “only natural ‘road’ race track”, according to the organiser.