FRESH hopes for a bypass serving Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar emerged this week with an announcement that the £31.3m scheme is being recommended for Government funding.

Lobbying by North Yorkshire County Council, which has been promoting the project for 14 years, has paid off in support from the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly regional transport board, the body responsible for decisions on priority schemes to meet business and commuter needs.

The bypass was one of ten schemes across the region, worth a total of £170m, backed by the board at a meeting last Friday, but the decision was in marked contrast to the stance adopted two years ago.

After the board failed to identify the bypass as a regional priority in 2006, the county council agreed that further work should be restricted to that needed to win planning permission, although the bypass was retained in the local transport plan.

Council leader Coun John Weighell, whose division includes Bedale, said: "Since then a lot of work has been done by council officers, and Clare Wood, our representative on the board, argued very strongly for it. We always thought there was a possibility of it but were not too optimistic, so this decision is extremely good news."

The three-mile road would remove 60 per cent of traffic from the A684 through the three communities and the county council executive is now expected to send a business plan to the Department for Transport in the authority's bid for funding.

Bypass plans were first unveiled in 1994, but because Leeming Bar is separated from Bedale and Aiskew by the A1, it was always intended that the road would run through a new motorway interchange to be built by the Highways Agency just north of Leeming Bar.

The Government announced last week that the first stage of work to upgrade the A1 to motorway standard from Dishforth to Leeming should start this autumn. The second stage, from Leeming to Barton, will follow in 2011.

Regional support for the bypass has been cautiously welcomed. Coun Malcolm Young, Mayor of Bedale, said: "I think many people will believe it when they see the first soil being dug, but this is one step forward and is very welcome.

"A lot of people have fought very hard for the bypass and the town council will continue to lobby for it to be built, hopefully at the same time as the A1 upgrade.

"But there are a lot of things to be sorted out and we need a car park somewhere near the church so that Bedale is not bypassed completely and turned into a ghost town."

Coun Neil Pocklington, chairman of Aiskew and Leeming Bar Parish Council said: "It will lead to a significant reduction in traffic, but that has to be balanced by ensuring that Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar are adequately signposted and that attractions in the area are made obvious."

Yvonne Rose, chairwoman of Bedale Chamber of Trade and Tourism, said: "We would welcome the bypass and I hope they get the go-ahead. I would like a car park built at the same time, as it would be no good economically if people went straight past Bedale and did not use local businesses."

Coun Weighell said a roundabout would need to be built at the western end of the bypass as close as possible to Bedale Market Place.

The announcement is expected to have implications for a separate interim study by the county council of traffic management options for the difficult junction of Bridge Street, South End, Sussex Street and Market Place, on the A684 in Bedale. Further consultations are being organised on options including traffic lights, road realignment and altered priorities.

A planning application for the bypass was submitted a year ago, pending a renewed submission to the regional transport board for funding, but it is not yet known when it will be considered by the county council planning committee.