A COUNCIL leader has pledged work on a key congestion-busting scheme will begin in the spring after receiving a barrage of objections over plans to build a 1,000-home estate nearby.

Councillor Mark Robson said providing Hambleton District Council granted the North Northallerton scheme planning permission in November, the associated bridge and link road project would be completed within the first phase of the development.

The pledge follows a planning meeting to decide the scheme being postponed for a month, partly due to a range of serious concerns being raised by Brompton Parish Council and Northallerton Town Council, which fears the bypass and bridge parts of the project may never be completed.

Senior Hambleton councillors say the £12 million link road between Darlington Road and Stokesley Road and a bridge over Brompton Beck and the Middlesbrough to Northallerton railway line, represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to divert traffic around the town centre.

Cllr Robson said the 53-hectare Northallerton proposal was different to another scheme, Sowerby Gateway, near Thirsk, in which developers Mulberry Homes was also involved, as the Northallerton project had secured a £6 million grant from the local enterprise partnership.

The long-delayed A168 junction scheme, seen as vital to the success of the Sowerby Gateway project as it would ease congestion, is being funded by developers, who councillors say were given an unrealistic target of starting work on it within six months of the first house being completed.

Cllr Robson said: "By having that money, infrastructure such as the bridge and the bypass road will be delivered at an earlier opportunity."

He said the remaining £6 million of the £12 million infrastructure scheme was in place and would be funded by the North Northallerton developers Mulberry Homes, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon Homes and from previous developments.

The Mayor of Northallerton, Councillor John Forrest, said the town council was calling for the project to be rejected.

The town council said it also had concerns about building on a floodplain in an area which has suffered flooding and over how foul water from the development would be treated, as it understood Romanby Sewage works to be at 92 per cent capacity.

A town council spokesman stated: "Any proposed link road and bridge would mainly only affect the new development and would do little to decrease the traffic flows within Northallerton.

"The very future of Northallerton's economic progress and prosperity revolves around a solution being reached to the traffic issues in the town."

Brompton Town Council chairman Councillor Barbara Slater said it was also calling for the scheme to be refused as the proposed primary school and homes for elderly residents would be sited close to the industrial premises on Thurston Road.

Allerton Steel, which runs a 24-hour operation on the road, has written to the council highlighting that the authority had been instrumental in moving the firm to the site in 2004, following complaints from residents at its previous Romanby Road premises.