THE Government is to be urged to make the planned multi-million pound Rillington bypass into a dual carriageway.

Members of a North Yorkshire County Council area committee also called on Ministers to upgrade the whole of the A64 to a two-lane highway.

The move came at a meeting of the county council's Yorkshire Coast and Moors committee, when members said the planned new road at Rillington should be upgraded from single carriageway status.

Work is due to start on the bypass in 2006.

Coun Gavin Williamson said it was "short-sighted" not to build a dual carriageway around the bottleneck village on the A64 York to Scarborough road.

He cited his own village of Seamer, where he said the bypass had given a vast improvement to the quality of life to the community.

Coun Williamson also successfully moved, with all-party support, that the entire A64 should be made a dual carriageway.

Coun Tony Randerson agreed, saying that the seaside town of Cleethorpes had

become a boom area since a new dual carriageway was built to the town.

"What has happened to Cleethorpes could equally happen to Scarborough," he said.

Chris Millns, senior highway officer with the county council, said he believed that the proposed improvements to the A64 would be done in phases,

and added that he thought that the new bypass around Rillington might have to be dualled at a later date.

But Mr Millns said modern single carriageways were much wider than the old-style roads.

The importance of the economy of Scarborough was a key factor in the case for improving the A64. Companies were viewing the resort as a peripheral area because it did not have a dual carriageway.

Coun Michael Pitts underlined the case for a dualled A64 and the importance of pressing the Government and the Highways Agency to treat it as a priority

scheme.

The committee was told in a report by Mr Millns that the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Assembly is seeking a meeting with Transport Minister David Jamieson, and that County Coun Peter Sowray is to represent the county council as the executive member for transport and highways.

Updated: 11:32 Friday, December 19, 2003