HIGHWAYS bosses are to investigate Evening Press readers' ideas for easing traffic jams on the A64 near York.

They may take action to help motorists on the westbound carriageway, who want to turn left into Tadcaster Road but are getting trapped unnecessarily in jams leading up to the Copmanthorpe roadworks.

A number of readers, invited by the paper to put questions to the Highways Agency about the roadworks, suggested that the westbound carriageway could be coned to create two separate filter lanes, with the left lane taking traffic heading for Tadcaster Road.

And the agency's project manager for the scheme, David Phillips, said today it was constantly reviewing traffic management to minimise delays, and it would look at this suggestion to see if it would be beneficial.

The news comes as:

* Congestion is set to worsen in York city centre with the closure of Cemetery Road in both directions for four weeks from this Friday morning for massive sewer repairs. Roy Templeman, City of York Council's director of environment and development services, urged motorists to avoid the area if possible otherwise, more gridlocks will happen.

* York councillor Dave Merrett, executive member for planning and transport, revealed he is writing to all MPs in the area, asking them to lobby Roads Minister David Jamieson for a drastic rethink over the roadworks.

* The council clashed with the agency over the nature of the A64 contraflow at Copmanthorpe.

Coun Merrett claimed that after nine months of talks between the local authority, police and the Highways Agency, both council and police thought an agreement had been reached under which two lanes of traffic would continue in each direction.

But instead the agency had cut the number of lanes at the Copmanthorpe contraflow to just one in each direction to reduce the time taken to complete the scheme.

As a result of the "severe lane reduction", the city had been overwhelmed by traffic diverting off the dual carriageway.

But the agency responded forcefully, claiming that it never promised it would keep two lanes of traffic in each direction. And it denied that the roadworks had led to more traffic diverting into the city centre.

A spokeswoman said: "We have considered a number of ways to undertake the work during the preparation of the contract but found that it was not possible to maintain four lanes of traffic on the road due to the nature of the work and the safety requirements."

She claimed that, after monitoring traffic on the A64, the agency believed there was no evidence of a decrease in traffic flow by drivers diverting through York city centre.

She added that it was impossible to carry out such a major scheme without causing some delays, and it was better to complete the work before next summer's heavier use of the route.

Updated: 09:35 Wednesday, October 24, 2001