At a meeting of the York Council Executive on 30 September 2021, Councillors will receive an update on the progress made on a potential railway station in Haxby.
As part of the update, councillors will be asked to note the progress being made with partners in delivering a new railway station in Haxby, and significantly, they will also asked to agree to purchase a plot of land** as part of the project. In doing so, the additional purchase of land will help reduce the 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 in Haxby. To support this, councillors will be asked to consider that a budget of £250K to fund the purchase and associated acquisition costs.
The purchasing of this land will help reduce one of the biggest risks with major projects. Problems with land acquisition can prevent delivery or cause significant delays. The land proposed to be purchased has the potential to help to deliver a station in Haxby either as the station location or for other strategic uses.
The ambition for a station at Haxby has been held for many years and as part of the Council plan, ‘Making History, Building Communities’. Last year, following consultation with communities, the council submitted a bid for funding to government to build a new railway station. In November 2020, the government announced that £400k had been made available to fund further development work. Since then, working closely 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 railway station, with the hope that a new station could be built in 2024.
As well as being asked to approve the purchase of land, councillors will also be asked to agree that the project be included in the council’s Capital Programme for 2021/22 to confirm the acceptance of the government’s development funding grant.
Due to commercial confidentiality, the precise location of this site cannot be named publicly at this particular time, upon the wishes of the current owner of the site. If the Executive approves the purchase of the site it is proposed to disclose the location in a further report to the Executive once the acquisition is finalised.
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.”
Councillor Andy D’Agorne, Deputy Leader of City of York Council and Executive Member for Transport said: “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.”
The Executive meeting will take place at 5:30 pm on Thursday 30 September and will be livestreamed online.
You can view the full agenda and see details of how to register to speak on this item online.
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