MORE uncertainty surrounded a relief road for Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar this week after the government said it did not have enough information on which to base a proper decision on funding the project.

The future of the scheme, planned by North Yorkshire County Council, already hinges largely on whether the A1 will be upgraded to a three-lane motorway between Dishforth and Barton because the relief road would run through a new junction near Leeming Bar.

Now the Government Office for Yorkshire has told the county council that the material it submitted for this and other bypass schemes was not enough to form a view on whether they passed the tests determining eligibility for funding.

Bypasses proposed by the county council on the A19 at Shipton, near York, and the A61 at Killinghall, near Harrogate, fell into the same category.

The Government Office said they would be looked at again once the additional work had been completed.

The development places fresh question marks over the likely timescale of the Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar project, plans for which have been worked up by the county council over the past ten years.

Disappointment at the Government Office response has been expressed by county hall and communities which would benefit from the relief road.

It would remove heavy traffic from a difficult market place junction in Bedale, and from a difficult crossroads in Leeming Bar, and ease pressure in Aiskew, where constant roadworks have caused delays.

Coun Terry Noyes, chairman of Aiskew Parish Council, said: "I would have thought there was masses of material. I find it rather surprising that, at this late stage, the Government Office should suddenly decide there is not enough information on which to base a decision. It is hard to believe after all the time and effort that has gone into this.

"It's obvious, from the heavy traffic and the roadworks which cause it to back up, that the area needs a bypass."

Council leader Coun John Weighell, who represents Bedale, said: "The effect of traffic on people in Aiskew, Leeming Bar and Bedale is immense.

"Traders in the market place have some reservations, but on balance they are very much looking forward to getting rid of that traffic.

"I have never really come across any adverse comment saying people don't need a relief road. It will be easier to stop in Bedale if there are no heavy vehicles."

Coun Weighell said pressure was continuing on the Government Office for a decision on the A1 motorway, which had been backed by the Yorkshire regional assembly.

The Bedale area relief road is in the county council programme for possible building between 2006 and 2010, but the Government Office claimed it had not been given enough information about the evaluation and monitoring of such schemes.

Mr Mike Moore, director of environmental services at the county council, said methodology based largely on traffic flows and accidents had changed so that more detailed examinations had to be made of environmental impacts, whether a road would help a local economy and the sustainability of a route.

Mr Moore said he was unhappy with the reaction of the Government Office to the Bedale project. It did not recognise that a decision was still awaited on an A1 motorway. The council had given all the information it could when it made its submission. Talks would continue with the Government Office.