TRANSPORT chiefs have dashed hopes that bypasses could be built for busy North Yorkshire towns and that a closed rail link could be reinstated.

They said the bypass schemes for Pickering, Helmsley and for the south of Malton and Norton, had been ruled out due to their potential impact on major archaeological sites, protected areas of the countryside and what it described as "poor economic performance" for local communities.

The news was revealed to members of North Yorkshire County Council's Ryedale area committee when Mike Moore, the director of environmental services, said in a report that an appraisal of all major schemes on the highways department's drawing board had been carried out as part of the new Local Transport Plan for 2006 to 2011.

It is now out for public consultation and will go before the county council's meeting in May, before being sent to the Department for Transport in Whitehall.

He said the latest cost for a bypass at Pickering had been put at just under £11 million, but the route would go through sites of nature conservation interest. While there would be a reduction in through traffic, the volume of tourist traffic would remain. The scheme would have a direct impact on Costa Beck and Pickering Beck, which have otter populations.

On the Helmsley scheme, estimated to cost £5.6 million, he said that while it would potentially bring improvements to the tourist honeypot, its route would be through at least nine archaeological sites and it would severely detract from the countryside.

Trees would have to be felled and extensive earthworks carried out to negotiate the topography of the new

road. The route would be close to Bronze Age remains, said the report. As a result it would not receive Whitehall funding, and would also have poor economic benefits.

The report also scuppers the dream of reopening the Malton to Pickering rail link - closed 40 years ago.

Mr Moore said that while studies on the possibility were completed in 2003, funding for reinstating the line - estimated to cost £20 million - was unlikely to be available in the short term, so no further investigation work was planned.

Priorities in the new plan include better provision for cyclists and pedestrians and building a £3.2 million bypass at Burn, south of Selby, on the A19.

However, as previously reported in the Evening Press, a bypass of the A19 at Shipton-by-Beningborough, is also considered unlikely to get Whitehall funding.

Updated: 09:31 Saturday, March 12, 2005