COUNCILLORS are to consider what to do with £50,000 set aside for a footbridge project scrapped because of unexpectedly high costs.

Plans for the bridge over Bedale Beck, in Bedale, which was aimed at improving pedestrian safety beside the busy A684, were put in doubt last year after Hambleton District Council found it would cost more than twice as much as anticipated.

The council worked with North Yorkshire County Council on the proposed extension to the existing Bedale Bridge in connection with the £1.4m redevelopment of the nearby railway station.

The existing bridge has only a narrow pedestrian strip on its north-east side leading to the station and the extension, two metres wide, was designed to separate walkers from road traffic.

It would have been achieved by extending the present bridge decking, using cantilever supports fixed to the stonework. It was planned to rebuild the parapet on the edge of the new footbridge, which would have been separated from the road by a low wall, with bollards to keep out cyclists.

County council design consultants prepared estimates and it was originally confirmed that the project would cost less than £130,000, but the lowest of four tenders was £248,991, with additional design fees of £30,000.

The county council gave £50,000 towards the footbridge, and now wants the money refunded, but the district authority wants to keep it to help pay for alternative pedestrian safety measures. The issue will be decided by the county council committee for Hambleton on Monday.

Alternative measures would cost an estimated £40,000 and include widening the footpath on the western side of Bedale Bridge to 1.5m, installing traffic-calming measures and narrowing the junction with Emgate.

A county council spokesman said: "The district council has indicated that the costs of the footbridge as designed are prohibitive and mean that the council, through no fault of its own, cannot deliver this aspect of the project."

He said the alternative scheme would not be a high priority for county council funding.