Costs threat to ‘once in lifetime’ North Yorkshire bypass plan

A FINANCIALLY-stricken council has warned it may still have to pull the plug on a long-awaited bypass after agreeing to fund a multi-million pound shortfall to ensure the road scheme remains on track.

Members of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive yesterday approved plans to push ahead with the proposed A684 bypass for the market town of Bedale, which has been heralded as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

But the council, which is battling to make £69m in savings amid cutbacks in funding from Westminster, will have to find £6.5m to ensure the road improvements become a reality.

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The Government announced last month that it would provide £35.9m in funding – nearly 85 per cent of the projected overall cost of the bypass – leaving the council to foot the outstanding amount.

The council’s executive member for highways, Coun Gareth Dadd, warned that the scheme could still have to be abandoned if costs escalated amid any further delays.

The bypass has been mooted since the mid-1990s, but the project has been blighted by a catalogue of delays and was put on hold in June 2010 after the coalition Government came to power.

Coun Dadd said: “This is certainly not an open-ended cheque, and we will continue to monitor the situation extremely carefully.

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“If there are any more setbacks and the cost of the scheme increases significantly, we will have to review our position.

“We do not want to raise anyone’s hopes or expectations as things could still go wrong. But there is an aspiration to make this happen, as the bypass would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The proposed bypass is seen as vital for boosting enterprise and tourism in the Yorkshire Dales, and the move to push ahead with the scheme has been welcomed by business leaders.

The road scheme would dramatically improve transport links to key destinations such as Wensleydale, and market towns including Leyburn and Hawes.

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It is estimated that the financial benefits outweigh the cost of the bypass by roughly six-to-one.

The head of the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, Susie Cawood, said: “This is great news for businesses and tourism in the Yorkshire Dales, and it is something that is a massive boost for the local economy.

“But every effort needs to be made to ensure that a strict timetable is adhered to because no-one would want to see the bypass having to be abandoned if costs do increase.”

The proposed bypass would run for just under three miles from Northallerton Road, on the eastern outskirts of Leeming Bar, to a new junction on the A684 near Bedale Golf Club.

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Traffic flow on the existing road is about 14,000 vehicles every day, causing notorious tailbacks in Bedale as well as Leeming Bar and Aiskew.

It is estimated that a bypass would cut traffic flow through Bedale by half while reducing pollution and improving road safety. Access to the A1M would also be boosted, with improved access to the Leeming Bar industrial estate.

Analysis by civil servants at County Hall has estimated the council could be faced with providing between £6.5m and nearly £23.5m depending on the final cost of the scheme. However, Coun Dadd stressed that he believed that the worst case scenario is “extremely unlikely”.

But the plans for the bypass have split opinion between other councillors with some members claiming less expensive road schemes should be considered, such as improvements to existing junctions in Bedale.

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The Yorkshire Post revealed in September last year that opposition Liberal Democrat councillors had warned any more delays for the bypass will leave taxpayers lumbered with millions of pounds of debt at a time when the authority is faced with massive cuts.

A planning application for the bypass is due to be submitted later this year before the county council considers whether it should be given planning consent.

A public inquiry would then be held into the proposals if the Government decides to call in the scheme.