THE HIGHWAYS Agency has come under renewed pressure to invest in road safety improvements on the notorious A64.

It came at a key meeting between Andrew Brown, a senior project officer with the agency, and leading members of North Yorkshire County Council, representing Ryedale.

He told the county’s Ryedale Area Committee at its meeting at Norton that work on the long-awaited improvements at the Hopgrove roundabout in York had been delayed due to contractual issues and as a result work would begin after Christmas.

In addition, said Mr Brown, some improvements have been included in the budget for the next financial year starting in April, but they were still awaiting allocation of funding.

Mr Brown said the agency was working under constraints in carrying out new schemes.

County Councillor Clare Wood (Hovingham and Sheriff Hutton Ward) said it was unacceptable that the public had no alternative but to cross the A64 dual carriageway on foot to catch a bus.

She said that concerning Barton crossroads – one of the worst accident blackspots which has seen several fatal accidents in recent years – the Highways Agency had said in 2006 it had done everything possible to improve road safety and had admitted that this had not worked, adding that a more substantial scheme would have to be investigated.

“No progress has been made since then and I am asking the agency to take this very seriously,” said Coun Wood.

Mr Brown replied that a possible funding bid for improvements at the crossroads may be forthcoming.

She said she was also worried about the rise in the number of accidents involving HGVs on the A64 in Ryedale and asked the agency to investigate them as a priority.

County Coun Greg White (Pickering) said he was concerned that improvement schemes for the A64 would never be affordable or come to the top of a list.

“How many fatal and serious injury accidents need to happen before the agency takes action?” he asked County Coun David Lloyd-Williams (Norton) questioned the quality of road surfaces on the A64 and the quality of the work. He suggested that Government-sponsored road works had been carried out in previous economic recessions and added that road building contractors could give better value for money in the current financial crisis.

The committee agreed that a report should be produced by the Highways Agency detailing the points system on potential improvements to the A64 and which schemes in the Yorkshire and Humber region had been given priority over the A64.

Chris Stark, group manager for the Ryedale and Hambleton area of the county’s Fire and Rescue Service, said it was concerned about the statistics for the number of people killed and seriously injured in road accidents in the districts.