A CAMPAIGN by worried villagers and MP Anne McIntosh for anxious to improve road safety at three Ryedale villages straggling the busy A64 trunk road, has resulted in success.

The building of pedestrian refuges at East and West Heslerton and Ganton, follows public meetings called by the MP, after a local schoolboy died while crossing the road to catch a bus.

They are among 49 improvement schemes are planned for the A64, many of them in the Ryedale area.

The news was given by Roger Wantling, project manager for the Highways Agency when he told North Yorkshire Ciunty Council's Transport, Economy and Environment Scrutiny Committee that the wide range of projects would include structural, road marking, vehicle restraint systems, drainage and signage renewals.

Some 18 of the improvements will be re-surfacing schemes with major works being carried out between Rillington Fields and Rillington village, East Knapton to East Heslerton, Staxton to Seamer.

In addition there will be work done between Bramham to Headley Bar, Tadcaster to Askham Bryan, Grimston to Hopegrove, and Pickering interchange to Brambling Fields, said Mr Wantling in a report.

while improvements are to be carried out to signing near Copmanthorpe, on the Golden Hill, stretch at Malton, and vehicle restraint systems between Tadcaster and Bilbrough and at Barr Lane junction.

Mr Wantling said the Highways Agency was working with North Yorkshire County Council and the York and North and East Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), together with Ryedale and Scarborough Councils, to bring about improvements on the A64 east of York.

Ms McIntosh, MP for Thirsk and Malton whose constituency includes a long stretch of the A64, said:"These improvements are very welcome, especially the pedestrian refuges at East and West Heslerton and Ganton, for which I have been campaigning because of the concerns of worried residents."

However, she said she had recently had a meeting with the new roads minister, John Hayes, quering why the A64 had been left out of the Initial Route Strategy Agreement for 2015/16. "The road had been clearly prioritised by the

LEP for the Local Growth Funding scheme. "At the very least the A64 needs dualling on the southern part between the Outer York roundabout and Malton."

She has involved the Highways Agency, NYCC, Ryedale District Council, Scarborough Council and Federation of Small Businesses as part of her campaign to have more improvements carried out to the road.

"It is vital that we have good road links between the coast, Ryedale and the A1, A19 and M1 because they are key to attracting new investment and jobs to this area", said Ms McIntosh.