NEW hopes of a major upgrading of parts of the busy A64 trunk road through Ryedale have been raised by highway bosses.

Details of an improvement programme costing almost £4m are due to be discussed at today’s meeting of the North Yorkshire County Council’s (NYCC) Ryedale area committee at Ganton. The county authority has said work is underway to carry out dualling of a section of the road near Malton, and the building of by-passes.

Mandy Foster, asset manager for the Highways Agency (HA) which is responsible for the A64, said in a report to the area committee that £3m is to be spent starting later this month on nine resurfacing schemes, with a further £675,000 on road marking renewal projects and £300,000 on signage and a new pedestrian refuge at Ganton.

She said: “We look for all opportunities for improvements to the network that will tackle causes of reported accidents.”

Funding for capital schemes has “increased signficantly this year,” said Ms Foster. As a result, road maintenance schemes in the Ryedale area on the A64 are being brought forward.

However, the second phase of the long-awaited Barton Hill crossroads will not be carried out until after April 1.

The A64 is now part of the HA’s South Pennines Route Strategy, said Ms Foster. Scheme feasibility work has now started and route strategies are to be published next spring. A joint agreement has been made between NYCC, City of York, Scarborough Borough and Ryedale District councils. She said planned works include the possible upgrading of the A64 east of the Hopgrove Roundabout in York and into the Ryedale area.

Meanwhile, Scarborough Borough Council has agreed to contribute £20,000 towards a feasibility probe into the A64 to strengthen the case for its improvement.

MP Anne McIntosh, whose constituency of Thirsk and Malton covers the A64, has appealed to the Government to reconsider a decision not to go-ahead with a £50m upgrading of the trunk road. She told the House of Commons in a debate that the scheme was vital to aid the economy of Ryedale and the Yorkshire coast.

She has been told by David Bowe, the NYCC’s director of business and environmental services, that Scarborough, York and Ryedale councils are funding a study which will investigate potential improvement of dualling the road between Crambeck and Musley Bank junction, near Malton, and safety improvements between Brambling Fields, Norton and Staxton roundabout, which would include possible by-pass schemes.