COUNCILLORS have highlighted what they say are unanswered questions surrounding a proposed bypass to serve three communities.

The bypass for Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar is one of ten schemes in Yorkshire and Humber, worth a total of £170m, backed by the regional transport board as best value for money and being recommended for Government funding.

The three-mile road, costing £31.3m and planned by North Yorkshire County Council, would remove 60 per cent of traffic from the A684 through the communities.

On May 27, the council executive is expected to consider a business plan to be sent to the Department for Transport.

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 has announced that the first stage of work to upgrade the A1 to motorway standard from Dishforth to Leeming should start this autumn, with the second stage, from Leeming to Barton, in 2011.

County council leader John Weighell, whose division includes Bedale, was questioned at the latest town council meeting about the likelihood of Government funding.

He said: "General practice has been that most schemes put forward by the regional transport board get ministerial approval.'' He said the bypass was in tenth place on the list, but the board had not indicated any order of priorities.

Coun Weighell said there could be implications for the new motorway junction link with the bypass because it was not yet known at which point the first stage of the A1 upgrade would end and the second would begin.

Town councillors felt hopes of a bypass could cast doubt on the need for traffic management measures by the county council at the junction of Bridge Street, South End, Sussex Street and Market Place, on the A684 in Bedale.