A SCHEME to upgrade roundabouts and junctions on York's congested outer ring road has been given the green light by city councillors.

The move means hopes that the A1237 road could be upgraded to a dual carriageway have been dashed, but could see improvements coming within the next two years.

City transport boss Councillor Ann Reid said it was the junctions which caused the delays, and they should be "reworked".

A City of York Council report, discussed by the planning and transport advisory body yesterday (WED), ruled out dualling of the road between Copmanthorpe and Hopgrove because of the cost - and because officers feared it would attract more cars.

After the meeting, Coun Reid explained why a dual carriageway option was not being recommended.

"The council receives approximately £7 million a year from the Government to spend on all transport schemes," she said.

"This road is not a regional priority for the Department of Transport and a failed bid would leave us with no money to make improvements.

"Most of the journeys are of less than five miles and under five minutes, and few vehicles use the whole length of the road.

"Therefore the committee have acted in the interests of the city by progressing the best value, most effective and most beneficial scheme, with improvements made in a much shorter timescale."

The report, written by capital programme manager Tony Clarke, revealed that journey times would "increase substantially in the future" if mitigation measures to relieve congestion were not introduced.

An afternoon peak time journey between Copmanthorpe Roundabout and Hopgrove Roundabout is predicted to take more than an hour by 2021, with severe delays at a number of key junctions, if improvements are not made.

The number of trips on the road is expected to increase by 20 per cent in the morning and 16 per cent in the evening.

Under the improvement scheme, the journey time improvement could range from a drop of 33 per cent on a peak clockwise journey in the morning (the most congested journey) to a 58 per cent reduction in a peak afternoon journey travelling anti-clockwise.

Coun Reid said: "While journey times are important, the first priority must be driver safety.

"Therefore Moor Lane junction will be included in the first phase of any upgrade."

But Labour transport chief Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing was not convinced.

She said: "I think we need to look at some of the traffic signal options, particularly with some of the new roundabouts that are proposed, such as Moor Lane, because this plan has got to be for pedestrians and cyclists and motorcyclists as well as for cars. People have got to be able to get across it as well as travel on it."

Updated: 09:38 Thursday, July 07, 2005