THE bill for the often-delayed upgrade of a section of the Great North Road has already reached almost £12m - although no improvement work has been done yet.

The Highways Agency spent £11.83m on preparatory work for the project on a 24-mile section of the A1, from Dishforth to Barton, in North Yorkshire, between 1989 and last year.

The figure was supplied by the agency - under the Freedom of Information Act - after it was approached by the parish council at Rainton, one of the communities that would be affected by the work.

Council chairman David Connell said: "Councillors have expressed some surprise at the high expenditure involved, without an inch of new road being laid."

Plans for the upgrade to motorway status were unveiled in 1991, when a possible starting date of 1996 was given for a project that then costed about £130m.

But after extensive consultations and a public inquiry, the scheme was shelved in 1996 when the Government cut £270m from its national roads programme.

In the summer of 2002, the scheme was revived, and by last year the cost had jumped to £330m, with the three-year project due to start in 2007.

However, shortly before last Christmas, following a comprehensive spending review, it was announced the scheme would be delayed by a year.

Mr Connell said the £11.83m was just a ballpark figure it had been given by the agency.

"It has not been broken down in any way - to give such costs as those involved in the scheme abandoned in the 90s, early contractor involvement in the latest scheme, fees paid to consultants, prices paid to buy up properties along the route or whether the total includes the new overbridge at Rainton crossroads," he said.

Some properties in the way of the upgrade were bought and demolished but others had to be put back on the market after the original scheme was dropped.

Some of those failed to find new buyers because of the likely work and remain boarded up.