How Heronby will tackle congestion and climate change

If we are to tackle climate change, congestion and rising fuel costs, we need to consider how people move around - and why - and offer alternatives which work in the real world.

In 2021, 70% of commuters used a car to get to and from work, and 67% of shopping trips involved a car, as did 74% of journeys for leisure purposes.

In Yorkshire, the Office of National Statistics suggests, the average commute by car takes about 25 minutes. People who walk to work take 15 minutes or so.

Many towns and cities have grown in a relatively unplanned way over the years, and it seems to have been accepted that the car was the optimum method of transport for most people: homes were built together and linked by existing and new road networks connecting to workplaces and retail centres often many miles away.

New, planned communities such as Heronby follow a straightforward principle: that people should be able to meet their day-to-day needs without having to rely on personal transport.

The concept is a walkable community where most people should be able to walk to the shops, to school, to work, and to the park.

Pedestrians and cyclists are being prioritised in the Heronby masterplan, with homes located around a settlement centre and three local neighbourhood centres. Most homes will be no more than a five-minute walk from a centre.

Footpaths will connect the centres, as well as the schools, green spaces, business premises and community buildings. Another new footpath and cycleway will connect Heronby with Escrick village, a 10-minute walk through a new country park and A19 underpass.

A major advantage for Heronby is that the existing north-south Trans Pennine Trail spur which attracts walkers and cyclists alike runs through the spine of the community. It provides a sustainable travel route from Heronby to both York and Selby.

From Heronby by bike to either destination is around 30-40 minutes. As the area is generally quite flat, this time could be cut further with an electric bike, achieving a cycle journey of around 25 minutes, which also happens to be the average car commute in Yorkshire.

An average petrol car will create around 3.25 kilogrammes of greenhouse gases driving from Escrick to Selby and back. If that is someone’s daily commute, those car journeys create more than 700 kilogrammes of CO2 (equivalent) a year.

For those choosing public transport, there is already a well-established and popular bus route along the A19 linking Escrick with Selby and York, and it is proposed that existing and potentially new services will be diverted into Heronby.

Of course, it is not always possible to leave the car at home, which is why the Heronby proposals also provide an opportunity to look at how the A19 might be improved in the future, cutting journey times for both bus passengers and drivers, and increasing safety for pedestrians.

Extensive transport modelling has been undertaken by specialists on behalf of Escrick Park Estate to look at the current use of the A19 in and around Escrick. The modelling also considers the future impacts of not just the new residents of Heronby, but all the growth in Selby district under the proposed new local plan.

Taking a typical car journey from Main Street in Riccall, south of Escrick, to the York Designer Outlet park and ride to the north, the study found:

• The typical maximum morning peak-hour journey time is 24 minutes.

• If a range of junction improvements were implemented immediately, that time could be cut to 14 minutes.

• By the year 2045, with the first three phases of Heronby complete and the junction improvements in place, that journey would still only take 15 minutes.

The major road improvements suggested by the study are:

• Traffic signals at the Skipwith Road/A19 junction which would reduce average delays at this junction to one minute for all users, including buses.

• Crockey Hill/A19 junction improvements, which would reduce delays there to around 15 seconds.

• Improvements to the A19-A64 junction to link up with the York Designer Outlet park and ride, which would also considerably reduce delays.

Without those changes, the Riccall to Designer Outlet drive time could increase from the current 24 minutes at peak times to 43 minutes by the year 2045.

The study also suggests a new bypass for Escrick could mean 20,000 fewer vehicles per day going through the middle of the village, greatly improving the quality of life for its residents. This could also see the return of bus services to Main Street.

Heronby will be a catalyst for change, and the transport study shows how it could encourage people to leave their cars at home, as well as cut journey times for future road users.