VILLAGERS campaigning for a bypass have received backing from Selby’s MP.

John Grogan has thrown his weight behind the Burn Residents’ Action Group (BRAG) drive for a relief road around their quiet village.

BRAG conducted a traffic survey late last year and found an average of more than 12,000 vehicles a day used the A19 through the village.

Residents are plagued by motorists using the road as a rat-run between the A63 Selby bypass and the M62.

Chris Phillipson, a Burn parish councillor and leading member of BRAG, said residents were sick and tired of the traffic, especially heavy lorries, thundering through the village day and night, ignoring the 30mph speed limit and causing vibrations, which are damaging some homes.

Now Mr Grogan has visited the village to investigate the traffic situation for himself.

“Burn villagers have been hard done by over recent years as their justified hopes for a bypass have appeared on several occasions to have been within reach, only to be cruelly dashed,” he said.

“Some years ago, North Yorkshire County Council was on the brink of approving a bypass scheme but this was shelved because the proposal of the European Spallation Source at Burn meant that a more ambitious scheme was required.

“Yorkshire Forward’s promises for funding were dependent on an economic development project going ahead which, to date, has not happened. I have agreed to continue exploring with the Burn Residents’ Action Group all possible ways of keeping the scheme alive.”

Members of BRAG have asked Mr Grogan to set up a meeting with Yorkshire Forward to discuss ways of restoring its promised contribution towards a Burn bypass.

The regional development agency owns Burn Airfield and is looking for ways of developing it, especially for scientific use. Mr Phillipson said: “A potential developer would find Burn airfield a more attractive proposition if a bypass were already in place. Surely this would be good business sense for Yorkshire Forward. The villagers of Burn would also be more likely to support any development if the agency helped us now with a bypass.”

A spokeswoman for Yorkshire Forward said the agency could not provide funding for stand-alone road schemes – funding for such projects could only come tied-in with other development, such as the European Spallation Source.

The county council, which is responsible for the A19 through the village, has told BRAG a bypass would now cost at least £5 million. Without Yorkshire Forward cash, funding would be needed from the Department of Transport’s regional fund, criteria for which is very strict due to over-subscription in the past. Burn is no longer listed as a priority for the fund.

Mr Phillipson said: “Burn has been asking for a bypass since the mid-1980s and we realised when we started our recent campaign that we would be in for the long haul.