North Yorkshire Council has said it “wants to work with the residents of Whitby” as a proposal to permanently decommission the town’s historic North Cliff Lift, which opened in 1931, was postponed.
At a meeting in Malton on Tuesday, March 17, the authority’s executive committee also decided to withdraw a replacement bus service which it said had become too expensive to sustain.
The lift has been closed since 2022 due to corrosion and water damage, with “worst-case” repairs estimated to cost £5.5 million, according to North Yorkshire Council.
Campaigners, Scarborough and Whitby’s MP, and local councillors have called for the lift – which links North Terrace to the beach below – to be repaired, saying it “is not a luxury, it’s a necessity”.
Cllr Sandra Taylor, Mayor of Whitby, welcomed the council’s decision not to permanently close the lift: “I’m very pleased at the outcome. The leader of the council has promised he will work closely with Whitby Town Council so that is really positive from our point of view.”
Commenting on the council’s decision to discontinue the free replacement bus service, she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “I think there needs to be a better alternative.
“The bus service has worked to a degree because it does allow access for some people, but it has failed anybody who was disabled, or in a wheelchair, it wasn’t a wheelchair friendly bus service, so that was the element where it failed really disastrously.”
Cllr Phil Trumper, who represents Whitby West Cliff on NYC said residents “appreciate the financial constraints” the council is facing but added that the lift is a “necessity”.
He told the meeting: “Almost 6,000 people signed a petition I started, which shows how important it is to the local community. It hasn’t operated properly since 2018, and we’ve seen really serious health and safety issues, most recently last week.
“The build-up of traffic is another health and safety issue, it’s become like the M1. There have been some serious accidents on the beach, and ambulances have been blocked by those vehicles.
“The figure of £5 million is a worst-case scenario and doesn’t reflect reality. We need this asset for the residents, for the visitors, for Whitby.”
Karl Battersby, corporate director of environment at NYC, said: “The main bone of contention is whether the costs are accurate”.
He said there was “no dispute the lift has suffered significant corrosion internally”, and added: “The bus is far too expensive for us to justify based on its current and historic usage.”
According to a report presented at the meeting, the cost of operating the bus service in 2025 was £52,744, or £345 per day, and the cost of operating the service in 2024 was £52,440, or £342 per day.
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Trumper told the LDRS: “It’s a victory for everyone who’s spoken up about the lift, been passionate about it and been passionate about the community of the town of Whitby.”
He called on the council to carry out the promised surveys “as quickly as possible because we’d really like to see the lift reopened as soon as possible”.
Cllr Trumper said: “We’ve been talking about it for a long time, so we need to get it open.”
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