North Yorkshire Council seeks £550,000 to develop vision for Seamer Station’s future

The council has said it will bid for more than £557,000 of funding to develop its plans for Seamer Station after a previous Levelling Up Fund bid for £28.2m was unsuccessful.

Coun Keane Duncan, the executive member for highways, said that if the bid to the York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) was to be successful, £275,000 would be spent on developing the options at Seamer Station and £282,758 would be spent on developing options to facilitate better active mode access to the station.

Speaking at a meeting on Friday, December 6, he added: “I’m fully behind investment in Seamer Station and trying to take that forward by pursuing different avenues of funding following the disappointing decision on the joint bid we submitted previously.”

It was noted that the authority was pursuing the development of this station “because Seamer has the least potential for other funding opportunities and it’s one of the most deprived communities in North Yorkshire”.

Council officer Keisha Moore said the authority had been trying to develop access to the station, active travel schemes and a footbridge over the station to Scarborough Business Park but the Levelling Up Fund bid was not successful.

She stated that the council decided to pursue other options that would provide better value for money by focusing on “improving access to the station as well as at the station”.

“It acts as a ‘parkway’ style station so it has really poor access, leaves cars parked all over the place because it’s so small – 40 spaces – and we really need to get people out of their cars and in its current format, the station doesn’t lend itself to that,” she added.

It was emphasised that supporting economic growth in conjunction with the nearby business park was a priority and the council hoped this would “re-energise local business and investment”.

The elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith, previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that he wanted to see Seamer Station developed as part of his plan for improving connectivity and transport links to the coast and the wider region.