COUNCILLORS are being asked to support a £10m boost for transport improvements.

The majority of the cash over the forthcoming year is coming from the Government in a £7.88m grant towards the York City Council's Transport Plan. The five-year, £50m plan ultimately seeks to improve public transport and cut congestion.

However, the council's executive members for transport are being asked to support additional bids for the plan, including a top up of £250,000 from the council's central project pool.

They are also being asked to back bids for £1.5m worth of resurfacing and reconstruction projects for the city's roads and footpaths and £250,000 to tackle backlogged work.

The rest of the suggested extra spending includes £115,000 to cover activities such as gully cleaning and clearing riverside paths, and £33,000 on a fault-locating system to centralise and speed up fault-detection from 40 city traffic signal points

Transport officers are warning that York's success on the transport front is putting strain on staffing and it is being suggested that some funding be used for recruitment and retention of staff.