A £2 million scheme to save lives at the notorious Manor Park bends should be scrapped in favour of a plan costing one-tenth of the price, Ilkley Civic Society has claimed.

And members believe Manor Park residents should be given £5,000 each to create turning circles in their front gardens so they don't have to back out into speeding traffic.

But their ideas are not shared by Manor Park residents who see the Highway Agency's new road plan as the only solution.

In a letter to Bradford Council's highways design unit, which is acting as contractor for the plan, civic society chairman Bob Tilley says: "We suggest that the current traffic calming scheme is permitted to work and be supported by a 50 mph speed limit. We also believe the Highways Agency scheme is excessively expensive and the funds would be better invested in public transport improvements or park and ride facilities."

Included in the civic society suggestions, which would cost £200,000, are traffic islands at the Little Chef restaurant and at Southway to allow safer turning.

But Manor Park resident Tony Clark said that the civic society plan would not solve the nightmare residents faced when trying to drive into the flow of traffic on the A65.

"Quite a few residents have turned their gardens into paving so they can go in and out head first but they still can't get across the road. On a practical basis I don't think it would really cure the problem."

A Highways Agency spokesman said draft orders for the road alterations would be announced early next year and Ilkley Civic Society or anyone else would then get the opportunity to make formal objections to the plan.

But Ilkley district councillor Colin Powell (Con), who lives at Manor Park, said residents were happy with the Highways Agency plan.

He said the current traffic calming measures did seem to have made a major effect on traffic speeding around Manor Park bends.

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