ANY move by Ryedale District Council to withdraw its support for dualling the A64 would be a "retrograde" step.

That was the view of Coun Elizabeth Shields (LibDem) as councillors thoroughly bashed a motion by Liberal Coun John Clark to back off from major expansion of the A64.

Coun Shields told councillors last Thursday that the road has claimed nine lives and seen 230 people injured in the last two years.

There was, she said, a greater chance of the people of Ryedale being at risk of being killed or injured on the York to Scarborough road than there was of them being a victim of crime.

She said that the campaign for upgrading the road had been on-going for 30 years and when she was Ryedale's MP, she had initiated the case for Rillington getting a bypass.

"To vote for this motion would be a retrograde step," she said. Improving the road would "halt the carnage" caused through road accidents. "The upgrading of the A64 is long overdue," she added.

Coun Clark said that improving the A64 would merely move the traffic congestion and pollution problem elsewhere, warning that villages, and the towns of Pickering and Scarborough would become victims.

It would be "an obscenity" to consider dualling the A64 through Ryedale's countryside, said Coun Clark.

The estimated cost of dualling the road is £200m and, said Coun Clark, if the district was given the opportunity to specify how it should spend that sum, it would not be on a new road.

But several councillors spoke in opposition to his motion.

Coun Natalie Warriner (Ind) said the council had agreed to support a study of the A64 because of its accident rate. The road, she added, was the lifeline of Ryedale.

"We have to live in a real world," she told Coun Clark.

Coun Helen Schroeder (LibDem) said upgrading the A64 was vital to Ryedale's

economy. "We have to be open to new economic opportunities. I don't want to live in a rural backwater," she said.

The aim, added Coun Schroeder, was to

persuade the Government to make improvements to the A64 a priority.

Improving the road was also important to the economies of Scarborough and the Yorkshire coast.

Coun John Raper (Con) said: "Anyone who argues against improving the A64 is either a fool or a criminal," adding: "We have a duty to promote the economy of this area."

He believed that cars should be made more environmentally friendly and suggested that more roundabouts on the A64 would improve its safety.

Motorists became frustrated because traffic was moving so slowly on the A64 at present due to the congestion, said Coun Raper.

Coun Keith Knaggs (Con) said improvements to the A64 went hand in hand with economic and environmental improvements. He believed Coun Clark was "moving back to a time when people didn't move around".

Coun Nellie Trevelyan (Lib) said she believed many of the accidents were caused by bad driving and dangerous junctions and suggested that underpasses should be built at some junctions.

Upgrading the A64, she feared, would take business out of Ryedale. "We need to get people travelling off-peak," she said.

The motion that the district council should withdraw its support for dualling the A64 was heavily defeated. Instead, the council welcomed the recent A64 study carried out by consultants which said there was a case for upgrading the road beyond the level set out in the Highway Agency's current route management strategy and that there was "a strong case" for further assessment of partial and full dualling schemes.

Councillors also agreed that action to improve the road should be "vigorously pursued".

Updated: 11:22 Wednesday, November 12, 2003