MORE than 650 residents have backed a campaign to create a six-mile cycle lane to encourage people to ride to their jobs and to schools.

The call follows numerous attempts over many years to establish a safe route for bikes along the B6271 from Scorton and Brompton-on-Swale to Richmond, most of which have been thwarted by a lack of funds, according to the leader of the Green Party and Independent group on Richmondshire District Council, Councillor Leslie Rowe.

He pressed the authority to push for more cycle lanes at a meeting in December, but the motion was rejected.

However, Cllr Rowe said with the Government recently announcing £2 billion in funding for councils to create more cycle paths alongside a petition with more than 650 signatures behind the B6271 cycle lane, he was optimistic about receiving support for the route from the council at a meeting of the authority next week.

Cllr Rowe said: “For the sake of our health, we desperately need an alternative to motorised transport.

“All too often, the very small amount of money that NYCC allocate for cycle lanes is spent in bigger towns like Harrogate. It’s time that rural communities got a slice of this much bigger pie.”

“Local councils have now been ordered by the Government to reallocate road space for a significantly-increased numbers of cyclists and pedestrians, as part of post-pandemic planning for social distancing.”

The petition asks highways authority North Yorkshire County Council and the district council as the planning authority to work together on the route.

The county council is set to receive £1.1 million from the government’s Emergency Active Travel Fund, which the authority’s access cabinet member, Councillor Don Mackenzie said was likely to “see an emphasis on schemes identified through our local walking and cycling infrastructure plans”.

However, Cllr Rowe claimed a recent meeting of Brompton-on-Swale Parish Council saw the county council’s leader and Catterick Bridge division Councillor Carl Les back the call for the cycle lane.

“Time will tell whether Councillor Les will make good on his promise,” said Cllr Rowe, who is also calling for the footpath from Catterick village to Brompton on Swale to be upgraded for cycling.

In response, Cllr Les said his promise to the parish council had been to support the submission of Cllr Rowe’s petition.

Cllr Les said: “Cllr Rowe seems to think I should wave a magic wand and benefit my area over all others. He might think that`s the way councils should work, but I don’t.

“All proposals need to be evaluated to get the best return for the taxpayer, usually the council taxpayers, but in this case national taxpayers. It seems a good idea, but as I said at the meeting, we have already had indications of proposals costing over £53m for a £1m pot. We are asking user groups on where routes should be.”