A MASSIVE transport plan for the city's biggest development site still leaves "many questions unanswered", York's opposition Labour group said today.

But council leader Steve Galloway branded the party "irresponsible" after it urged City of York Council's ruling executive to defer taking a decision on the York Central transport masterplan at its meeting today.

Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing, Labour shadow planning and transport chief, and leader Dave Merrett have expressed strong reservations on the Faber Maunsell study into the 70-acre Teardrop site.

Last week, the Evening Press reported how the study, providing first ideas for how transport will access the swathe of land behind York Central when it is developed over the next two decades, included plans to build a new pedestrian footbridge, build new access roads and even demolish the bridge at Queen Street.

The scheme was estimated to cost between £31 million and £110 million.

But Coun Simpson-Laing said members of her group had "real concerns over the ideas posed by the study and the analysis of the level of provision for public transport and the control of parking on the site".

"We have asked that council officers meet the ward committees in the relevant wards of Holgate and Micklegate and brief them on the potential impact of the scheme, with particular reference to residents in Leeman Road, Cambridge Street, Watson Terrace and Queen Street," she said.

The Labour group wants the executive to defer discussion of the plan until councillors have had a presentation from officers and the consultants, and have had "time to digest this major document more fully".

Coun Merrett said: "We have also noted that, despite the fact that there were major delays to the completion of this document while council officers sought changes to it, it still leaves many questions unanswered."

Coun Galloway said: "They (Labour) are being highly irresponsible. This development is an important one for York and we need to get on with further development of the transport plan.

"There is plenty of time for them to be fully briefed. There will be no final decision at the executive, but to defer even consideration of this for an indeterminate period of time is not in the best interests of the city.

"It is extraordinary that Coun Merrett should, on the one hand, be moaning about the apparent delays to the scheme, and then seek to inflict a delay on the procedure."

Coun Galloway was referring to criticism from the Labour group, late last year, when it claimed the York Central scheme was three years behind scheduled timetables.

Updated: 10:00 Tuesday, January 17, 2006