CITY of York’s council leader today called for radical congestion-beating plans after moves to dual York’s outer ring road suffered a body blow.

Coun Andrew Waller said it was now essential, in terms of the future economy of York, for councillors to begin looking at alternative ways to fix the long-term traffc problem in the city.

As reported on Saturday, hopes that York’s outer ring road could be dualled were dashed after a report by traffic consultants said the scheme would cost more than a quarter of a billion pounds.

The report said local taxpayers would have to bear at least ten per cent of the costs for any junction upgrade and for a full dual carriageway design. This could be in the order of £26 million on a total cost of £264 million at 2014 prices.

The report said that assuming the whole of the council’s transport budget was devoted to the scheme over a four-year construction period, this would still leave more than £14 million to be funded by council taxpayers – the equivalent of a 28 per cent increase in council tax levels.

Coun Waller said over the last five years, the council has had had some success in dealing with increased traffic on the roads – such as improving park and ride sites to encourage people to leave their cars at home – but said “what we now need to do is look at other means to reduce motorists on the roads”.

He said: “I think introducing a tram train in the city would be a viable and productive option to improve public transport in the city”.

“We have to spend time on solutions that are likely to get funding. In the report on dualling of the outer ring road it spelled out the costs of such junction improvements which were not feasible.”

City of York Council’s transport boss Coun Steve Galloway said York’s economic future hinged on whether alternative ways to improve the transport in the city received funding.

He said: “It very much depends on whether we get approval to other proposals put forward to the transport board,” he said.

“If we put forward a scheme to improve all the junctions in the city and dual the carriageway between the York North West site and the A64 then this would facilitate proposed developments at Monks Cross, Poppleton and York North West site, which is where new jobs are scheduled for the city.

“If this is successful then it would not make much of a difference to the economic climate in York. However, if we do not have any or limited funded for transport funding in York, then we would see progress in the economic climate be much slower that would otherwise be the case.”

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Should York’s outer ring road be dualled?