North Yorkshire towns to benefit from £7 million activity fund
David Skaith, the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, has launched a ‘Moving Forward’ scheme
Last updated 13th Oct 2025
‘Challenging’ coastal areas are set to benefit from a new £7 million mayoral fund aiming to link people with the outdoors and activity.
David Skaith, the elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, has launched a £7m ‘Moving Forward’ scheme to improve the mental and physical health of residents across the county.
“It’s really looking at how we can support people right across York and North Yorkshire with their physical and mental health, in an area that typically can be quite challenging because of its rural and coastal elements,” said Mayor Skaith.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) ahead of the campaign’s launch, he said that coastal areas would be a particular focus and that the funding would enhance the use of “our wonderful coastline, two national parks, and our rich heritage of sport in the region” to support people and also improve the economy.
The campaign will run for two years and the first ‘milestone’ is £2.75 million Movement, Activity and Sport funding.
As part of the scheme, there will be grant options allowing organisations to bid for funding to increase activity and mental health support services.
“We’ve already got projects that are funded now, for example, one in Scarborough, Whitby, and Filey, which is looking at how we support young people to be safer in the water, so we’ve supported just over 200 young people with that already.”
Earlier this year, members of the Scarborough and Whitby Area Committee backed plans for a three-sided outdoor tidal swimming pool at Children’s Corner in South Bay.
Asked if such projects could be supported with the funding, Mayor Skaith said: “That’s the kind of thing that we want to be thinking about and long-term change.
“This grant funding element wouldn’t be enough to fund something on that scale because we’re probably talking in the millions, I would imagine, but it could be an opportunity where it’s some seed funding.
“It’s certainly the type of project that we want to be seeing and that kind of enthusiasm for those kinds of projects as well.”
The mayor highlighted that the North Yorkshire coast has an aging population in a rural area where “typically it is very hard for those people to access services”.
“So many of our local towns, villages, and parishes, have a sport offering, be it a cricket club, a rugby club, a football club, or a village hall and there’ll be some element of offering that’s already going on there, but these groups can now bid in to access more funding to maybe put on different activities, different offerings.”
He added: “A key part is investment into that early intervention prevention work, so it’s stopping people getting to crisis point, actually supporting people to be more physically and mentally fit and active.”