CIVIC campaigners are calling for a new look at multi-million pound plans for a major development and relief road which they claim will not solve a town’s traffic problems.

Developers plan to build more than 1,000 new homes, a rail bridge and connecting link road, a new school and commercial and retail areas on a 53-acre site at the North end of Northallerton.

Hambleton District Council say the principles of the scheme cannot be in doubt and have long been included in the planning blueprint for the town.

One of the key elements is a bridge over the railway and a new link road between Stokesley road and Darlington Road alleviate huge traffic problems at the existing Low Gates level crossing.

An exhibition of plans was staged by the consortium of developers, Mulberry Homes, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon, but Allertonshire Civic Society members fear the scheme will not help.

John Edwards said: "We regret that the forum was purely a vehicle for the developers to show their wares, a set of pretty pictures to show their houses and their approximate location in the context of the proposed relief road.

“We regret that the relief road will be anything but a relief. It is designed to allow traffic out of the site onto two roundabouts that will slow down the north and south traffic. We regret that the plans for the new estate will only add to the congestion at Low Gates level crossing.”

Director of environmental and planning services for Hambleton Council, Mick Jewitt said it was important to be clear at the outset that the principle of the development was not in question.

“The site is proposed for development in Hambleton’s Allocations Development Plan Document, adopted after full public consultation and public examination in 2010," he said.

”It will be for the consortium to demonstrate to the Council, when they make the planning application, that they have taken the views expressed by local people into account. The Council will arrange a further round of public consultation after the planning application is submitted, before any decision is taken on it.

“The effect of the new link road and any issues relating to Low Gates Level Crossing will need to be set out in the application and will be subject to independent assessment by North Yorkshire County Council’s highway engineers.

“However, the highway implications have already been tested by extensive traffic modelling work which showed that with the link road the development could be accommodated without worsening traffic indicators in Northallerton."