A TAXI voucher scheme is to be introduced in the Pickering area as part of a plan to improve rural transport.

Members of the town council were told in a report by the Town Clerk, Andrew Husband, that Pickering Area Partnership (PAP) was committed to ensuring that residents of a rural area around the town covering some 342 square kilometres, are able to make necessary journeys.

Although remoteness of parts of the area had resulted in a high car ownership it masked evidence of severe deprivation with more than one in six households not having a car, he said.

"The new community investment prospectus showed that a common factor of rural isolation is the inability to access services, readily available to those in urban areas," he said.

The new taxi voucher project aims to tackle social exclusion by helping to improve public transport, but would be complimentary to, and not a replacement for, conventional public and community transport.

The scheme will invite taxi operators to take part provided they agree to accept the vouchers and can exchange taxi vouchers for cash at a designated cash point. A book of 70 security-printed vouchers worth £2, valid for a year, will be issued free to 100 registered members.

The town mayor, Coun Natalie Warriner, said she was delighted with the proposed new taxi voucher project. "When the concessionary fare scheme ended in Ryedale, I was determined to see an alternative set up. I think the taxi scheme will be a success and I hope to see it in operation by the end of the year. It will benefit 100 people initially but hopefully it will be expanded in the future."

North Yorkshire County Council highways department is to build a road hump as part of a traffic calming scheme for Goslipgate and Firthland Road, outside Corner House, Goslipgate.

The new Wheels to Work scheme being run by Ryedale Voluntary Action and funded by the Countryside Agency, is now established. It aims to help young people who are having difficulty in accessing work, training or education because of a lack of public transport to reach it through the moped leasing scheme.

Pickering in Business and the town council have each raised worries about the number of coaches using Birdgate, Pickering. The area traffic manager says prohibition of coaches is on the list of traffic management issues awaiting investigation.

Updated: 09:40 Wednesday, September 18, 2002