A park and ride scheme to cope with Scarborough's summer traffic is expected to be approved by planning officers.

The multi-million pound project will include a drive-in restaurant on a site alongside the A64, near Dean's Garden Centre, in Seamer Road, Scarborough.

Gordon Somerville, the borough council's head of planning services, said in a report to the development and regulation committee that the scheme would be a great asset to the resort.

It will include a 630-space car park as well as a 40-bedroom Travel Inn, restaurants and flats for staff, and a drive-through-restaurant, the first on the Yorkshire coast.

He said there had been protracted negotiations over the schemes.

Mr Somerville said that at previous inquiry, a government planning inspector had described the area to be developed as unsightly.

North Yorkshire County Council has suggested the park and ride scheme, which is seen as vital to alleviate Scarborough's increasing summer congestion problems.

A traffic light-controlled junction will be provided at the junction with Stoney Haggs Road and Seamer Road, and the park and ride project will include landscaping.

The Travel Inn will also have a Brewsters pub and restaurant, said Mr Somerville.

Seamer Parish Council has asked for changes to the layout of the development to protect views from Edge Dell and Stoney Haggs Rise.

Support has been given by Scarborough Civic Society, but it has urged that an imaginative landscaping scheme is used to improve people's first impressions of Scarborough.