Land purchase proposed to help push forward plans for new railway station

York city councillors will be asked to help progress plans for a new railway station, in Haxby.

At a meeting of the council executive on 30 September 2021, they will be asked to agree to purchase a plot of land as part of the project.

The purchase is intended to help reduce risks to the delivery of the project and put the strongest possible case forward to the Government to secure greater funding for a new railway station.

To support this, councillors will be asked to consider approving a budget of £250,000 to fund the purchase and associated acquisition costs.

Last year, the council submitted a bid for funding to Government to build the new railway station.

In November 2020, the Government announced £400,000 had been made available to fund further development work.

Since then, in collaboration with Network Rail, the council has been working on a strategic and business case which will help unlock the additional funding that will be necessary to deliver the station, with the hope that it could be built in 2024.

As well as being asked to approve the purchase of land, councillors will be asked to agree the project be included in the council’s Capital Programme for 2021/22.

Councillor Keith Aspden, leader of City of York Council, said: “It is incredibly encouraging to see the progress that has been made to date on delivering a new station at Haxby.

“It has always been our ambition to bring a railway station to Haxby and since we secured the funding last year, further work has taken place to develop these plans and make this ambition a reality.

“A new station at Haxby would increase connectivity for communities, providing faster, more efficient sustainable transport links from Haxby into York, Leeds, Manchester and beyond, as well as linking this area with Malton and Scarborough.

“Of course, there remains a lot of work to do and we will continue to do what we can to make this happen, with further updates due to be shared in the weeks after this Executive meeting.”

Cllr Andy D’Agorne, deputy leader of City of York Council and executive member for transport, added: “This is the latest milestone in our efforts to bring a railway station to Haxby.

“Haxby station would bring many benefits. Better sustainable transport links reduce traffic levels on the road and also better connect those living in the north of the city to areas across the country.

“We are grateful to those who fed back to our consultation last year, with over 1,000 people having their say and the vast majority (91%) supporting the idea of a railway station in Haxby.

“We will continue to engage communities as we move through this project and share more details as soon as we can.”

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