THE Government is being asked to provide more than £21m to help improve transport across North Yorkshire.

The county council is asking for the cash to pay for a wide range of work, and a detailed bid was submitted to Whitehall yesterday.

The money will go towards essential maintenance work on roads and bridges, as well as various integrated transport schemes.

But the authority will have to wait until December to discover if its plea has been successful.

The package of schemes is part of the first year of the council's five-year local transport plan, or LTP, and its vision for the future has three basic themes.

They include improving road safety by reducing accidents and giving more priority to the needs of cyclists, pedestrians and people with disabilities.

Secondly, it is hoped to improve community life by reducing transport-related noise and car pollution.

Thirdly, it is planned to promote social equality by providing genuine choices of travel and meeting the needs of the socially and physically disadvantaged.

The package includes feasibility studies for reopening the rail line linking Harrogate, Ripon and Northallerton, as well as the Malton to Pickering line.

The council's director of environmental services, Mike Moore, said: "North Yorkshire has more miles of roads and, because of the river network, more bridges to repair than many other counties.

"We need a sufficiently high level of funding to enable us to start tackling the problems which have been building up, and make significant progress on schemes designed to reduce accidents, improve public transport facilities and measures aimed at encouraging walking and cycling."

In partnership with other organisations, including district councils and voluntary groups, the authority also aims to develop a new approach to integrated transport systems.

They will have to meet both the social and economic needs of local communities, as well as safeguard the environment.