A PARISH council is hoping to build a new cycle path to create the final piece of the jigsaw giving people in their village an "off-road" route into the city.

Rufforth Parish Council have applied for planning permission to construct a short stretch of off-road path, to link the village to an existing route around Harewood Whin waste site.

The applications says that a new 400m path will mean that people who want to walk or cycle from Rufforth into the city they will not need to use the busy B1224 at all. At present, the path around the waste site ends on the busy York to Wetherby road, around 200 metres from the edge of the village and on a sharp bend in the road.

If the parish council's plans get the go ahead, it will see a new link path constructed running behind houses on Wetherby Road, and along the edge of a field bordering the B1224.

The parish council fought for 10 years to get the long path constructed around Harewood Whin, linking Rufforth to the village of Knapton where it joins up with other paths. It cost £130,000 to link and was funded by waste management company Yorwaste, Yorventure, City of York Council, Rufforth with Knapton Parish Council and sustainable transport charity Sustrans.

When it was opened in September 2014, by the then Lord Mayor Ian Gillies, residents in Rufforth had a traffic free route to the city for the first time since the construction of the A1237 York ring road.