THE death of an elderly motorist has led to fresh calls for a bypass to be built round a bottleneck village which has been campaigning for a relief road for 80 years.

The death of the female driver in a three car crash on the edge of Rillington village, near Malton, last week, was the 11th fatality on the notorious A64 in the past year. Leading authorities are now pressing for £250m to transform the road, but Rillington has been told it is unlikely to get a bypass before 2035.

Retired teacher Colin Wicks, who has lived in the village for fifty years has campaigned for decades for the bypass and says they have been given starting dates three times but every time it has been abandoned. Mr Wicks says action has to be taken now.

He warned: "We have had promise after promise from MPs and successive transport ministers but still no action. The traffic problem is getting worse each year, we have seen more accidents and traffic queues. This isn't a holiday season problem, it is one which exists all year-round, with heavy traffic heading to and from the coast as early as 5 am."