A NEW road designed to bring traffic relief to three communities in and around Bedale was described yesterday as a big gamble and a development which could have a drastic effect on commercial life in the town.

The estimated cost of a bypass for Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar has risen to £10m since plans were first put on public display eight years ago.

The almost three-fold increase was revealed as North Yorkshire councillors agreed that highway engineers should resume preparatory work on the bypass in the hope of fitting it in with revived plans by the Highways Agency to upgrade the A1 to a three-lane motorway between Dishforth and Barton.

Councillors considering their forward programme for major highway schemes have allocated £190,000 this year and again in 2004-5 for advance design work on the bypass, plans for which were first announced early in 1995 with a price tag at that time of about £4.3m.

The bypass, designed to run through a major new A1 junction north of Leeming Bar, had to be shelved at the end of 1996 after the motorway scheme appeared to be dashed by cuts of £270m in the national roads programme.

The county council has decided that preparatory work on the bypass must begin again following last year's announcement that the motorway scheme is being revived.

The Highways Agency is completing a brief to commission designers and expects to hold consultations in 2005, with work due to start on the 24-mile section in 2007-8.

County council environmental services director Mike Moore said engineers would now review the original plans for the bypass.

He said: "I think we will need to go back to the public with a re-designed scheme and I would hope there could be consultations some time during this financial year.''

John Laity, chairman of Bedale Chamber of Trade, said the bypass constituted a major step which would have to be considered carefully.

"Obviously it will impact drastically and there will be plusses and minuses. If you get the heavy goods vehicles out of town I suppose alongside them the cars will go as well.

"If it could be done so that you can still see Bedale as you go along the bypass, and it doesn't come out too far away from the town, the impact will be lessened.

"It will have an impact on the town and it will be a learning curve for everyone. We cannot even guess what it might do. There won't be any easy answer. It will be what we are left with in the cold light of day.

"These are very challenging times for traders in Bedale and we need to make the best of any promotion we can. There is a great need to get a coach park established at the north end of the town as soon as possible."

Coun Ray Calvert, Mayor of Bedale, said there had been hopes of a coach park just off the bypass as it was originally planned.

"In many ways, a bypass would be good news but there might be mixed feelings on it. One of the big worries is that if we get HGVs out of the way will we lose cars going up to the Dales?

"A lot will depend on where the bypass emerges. It's a big gamble. I can see advantages and disadvantages."