A64 seaside traffic misery could become thing of the past as plans to dual road progress

National Highways has released details of plans to upgrade the A64 to be a dual carriageway from Hopgrove near York to Barton-le-Willows some seven miles away.

Much of the A64, which runs between Leeds and Scarborough, is single-carriageway only and the road is notorious for long traffic delays particularly on weekends and Bank Holidays as it is the only major road linking York and Leeds with the east coast resort.

A public consultation on the plans began earlier this week and will run until early September.

Plans from National Highways say the proposed dualling will improve capacity and journey time reliability at the Hopgrove Junction to Barton-le-Willows to meet current and future demand, Support economic development and the regional economy and Maintain and improve road safety.

Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton, has long campaigned for improvements to be made to the road.

He said: “This really is make or break time now.

“It’s critical that people express strong support for it, as has happened in previous consultation.

“Highways England were surprised at the strength of feeling and we need to make sure that carries through because it does have a big impact on the decision making of the Department and the Ministers.”

Describing issues residents face on the road, Mr Hollinrake said: “A lot of local people don’t even use it.

“They’ll go through back roads and villages which is a travesty, really because it should be a great route to get from York to the east coast.

"As a consequence, it disrupts people’s lives and it also disrupt businesses.

“In fact,it’s a real big bottleneck in terms of business investment in the region. That’s not fair at all for the economies of Malton, Pickering, Filey and Scarborough.

“Both from a leisure perspective and from the economy - I think everybody who has been to the east coast has been stuck in traffic on it.

“It takes twice as much traffice daily as is recommended.

“I’m really encouraged that the Government has changed the Green Book - the formula the Treasury applies to a project. In the past, that’s meant projects in London have had more chance of getting projects approved.

“This is a definite levelling up issue, and now we’ve got a much better chance of getting the money.”