Councillors have approved spending £15,000 on a feasibility study for a land train in Knaresborough.
A trial is now set to take place over the October half term which will ferry passengers from Waterside into the town centre and back.
Other tourist towns including Bournemouth, Weymouth and Bridlington have introduced land trains, which are vehicles designed to look like a train but can drive on roads.
North Yorkshire Council believes the land train could help some visitors overcome Knaresborough’s hilly terrain.
During a meeting of the Harrogate and Knaresborough area committee yesterday, a North Yorkshire Council officer issued an apology to Knaresborough Town Council after they incorrectly stated in a report that the town council would take over the scheme and make the land train permanent if the trial was successful.
This led Cllr Michael Harrison (Conservative, Killinghall, Hampsthwaite & Saltergate) to question if there was an appetite from local groups to run the scheme, which could prove to be costly.
In response, Cllr Peter Lacey (Liberal Democrat, Coppice Valley and Duchy), who is also a director of the business group Knaresborough and District Chamber, said there was much excitement about the land train and he described the scheme as “a real goer”.
Cllr Lacey said:
“A land train of this type has been talked about for many years in Knaresborough, it’s an opportunity. There was a lot of enthusiasm at a recent chamber meeting and a lot of businesses want to get on the bandwagon.”
The streets of Knaresborough and Waterside can be full of tourists enjoying the town. Cllr Matt Walker (Liberal Democrat, Knaresborough East) raised concerns about safety and said the land train “could cause a bit of carnage” if anything went wrong.
He also questioned if the land train could make it up Knaresborough’s notoriously steep hills.
Cllr Walker queried if alternatives such as electric minibuses or golf buggies might be more suitable.
He said:
“There are hills at both ends of Waterside, can the land train get up such a steep hill? If it can’t, it’s a non-starter. We need reassurances that if we spend £15k it can get up a hill.”
Cllr Lacey said a recent site visit determined that the land train would be able to navigate the town’s hills and he said that the route would be safe for pedestrians.
Councillors on the local area committee have £30,000 a year allocated to spend on local projects and they agreed to issue funding for the land train study as well as traffic counting equipment at Starbeck crossing that could build a case for improving traffic flow.
North Yorkshire Council said in a statement that if the land train trial is successful it would work with partners around the viability of the project and its long-term delivery.
A request for money for a mural on Station Parade in Harrogate was withdrawn by the council who will now look to secure alternative funding for the scheme.
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