FEARS have been expressed that the starting date of revived plans for a three-lane A1 motorway between Dishforth and Barton could be delayed indefinitely because of Government budget cuts.

An e-mail sent by a Highways Agency project manager to the chairman of a parish council along the route has fuelled fresh uncertainty about the future of the £330m scheme, resurrected in 2002 after six years on the shelf.

Previous time-scales announced by the agency envisaged a start date of 2007 if all statutory procedures, including local consultations next year and a subsequent public inquiry, were successfully concluded. Completion was scheduled for the spring of 2010.

A contract was awarded earlier this year for the project, which includes new junctions at Baldersby, Leeming Bar and Catterick and improvements to existing ones at Dishforth, Scotch Corner and Barton.

But the D&S Times has learned that on December 2 the Government issued its capital spending allocations under a comprehensive review and did not grant funding to the Highways Agency for the upgrade.

It is not in the current programme and will not now start until at least 2008. The Government has allocated only £1.9bn for road improvements over the next three years.

Rainton Parish Council has been told that, following the spending review, the scheme is now in a targeted programme of improvements for construction after April 2008, with no indication of when work might then start.

Information about the revised time-scale was received from A1 project manager Alan Duckworth by David Cornmell, of the parish council, which has been pressing the Highways Agency for as much information as possible about a proposed route because of its likely effect on villagers.

Earlier this year, a temporary £1.5m overbridge was officially opened across the existing A1 at Rainton to take local traffic, including slow moving tractors, away from a blackspot crossroads.

Mr Cornmell said: "We kept hearing all sorts of rumours about the upgrade and decided that we had to try to find out what was going on.

"We know what we know now because a local civil engineer spotted in his staff bulletin that the Highways Agency business programme had suddenly shown our scheme put back.

"The feeling now is that this is more or less an indefinite delay. As far as we are concerned, this will increase uncertainty about the route of the motorway and the long-term future of the Rainton overbridge.''

Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh, whose party shelved the previous A1 upgrade in 1996 after £270m was cut from the national roads programme, said the latest delay was a slap in the face for people in North Yorkshire.

Ms McIntosh, who has been working closely with Rainton Parish Council, said she was angry and disappointed that the Highways Agency was "fobbing off" any commitment to the upgrade.

"It affects local people travelling to work, farmers, transit traffic through the Vale of York and not least the people of Rainton. This will do nothing to ease congestion on this heavily trafficked section of the A1.''

An A1 motorway would cut through part of Leeming Bar, and Bob Pocklington, chairman of the parish council, said any delay would inevitably have implications for a relief road for Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar.

The relief road, proposed by the county council, would run through a planned new motorway interchange at Leeming Bar.

Mr Pocklington said: "If this information about a delay is true, it is very disappointing. Some people will wonder if the plans for an upgrade are really serious and whether it will actually happen.

"As well as the need for an improved A1, a lot of future plans for Bedale revolve around a relief road. We would try to find out what is going on and try to apply pressure through the county and district councils for the agency to reconsider."

A large part of an upgraded A1 from Leeming to Barton would run through the Catterick division represented by County councillor Carl Les, who said: "'If there is any delay, it is a great disappointment, especially for those who use the A1 on a daily basis, because it is becoming an extremely busy road.

"The community will want some reassurances about what will happen. There is a traffic management study for Catterick Garrison, Scotton and Catterick Village and things coming out of this will depend on the A1."

Budget cuts have already delayed for three years a promised Highways Agency overbridge on the A66 at a difficult crossing point near Longnewton, between Stockton and Darlington.

A Highways Agency spokeswoman confirmed yesterday: "In light of the recent 2004 spending settlement, a thorough review of the targeted programme of improvements has been carried out.

"As a result. the proposed A1 Dishforth to Barton improvement is now given high priority as a 'national' scheme for construction to begin after April 2008. We are reviewing the scheme programme in light of the announcement.