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John Grogan, MP for Selby, commented on news that North Yorkshire County Council have decided to scrap plans to spend £840,000 upgrading the A19 roundabout at Riccall.
John Grogan said
“This is a complete bolt out of the blue. Over the last decade the Parish Council, local Councillors and I have had numerous meetings about the problems of access onto the A19 from Riccall. This roundabout was meant to have been built a couple of years ago but there were delays in the acquisition of land. In April 2006 it was reported to the North Yorkshire Area Committee that the roundabout would be built in the financial year 2007/2008 at a cost of £840,000. In October 2006, in a letter to Councillor Casling, North Yorkshire Highways said that detailed design work was about to begin.
Now, without any prior warning, North Yorkshire County Council have cancelled the scheme. It is certainly not a question of money as the Government have actually just increased funding for transport schemes in the county by 25% in 2007/2008. They claim the scheme no longer meets its criteria but those same criteria were used last April when the scheme was given the green light. This decision is completely unacceptable. In April 2006 it was reported to the Area Committee that £1.1 million would spent in Selby on Highways in 2007/2008. I understand this has now been cut to £600,000 which means £500,000 million has been diverted to other areas of the county.
The irony is that North Yorkshire County Council are currently trying to persuade us that they should take over all Local Government in Selby, On the basis of this decision I think they will find it more difficult to persuade people that officers in Northallerton really care about Selby District and local priorities. I shall be working hard with Riccall Parish Council to try and persuade them to think again.”
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