HOPES for bypasses for villages on the A65 have been dashed as the Government officially ditched any plans for new roads around Hellifield, Long Preston and Gargrave.

Minister Dr John Reid, published the Government's A New Deal for Trunk Roads in England on Friday, which broke the bad news.

Dr Reid also announced the A629 Skipton to Kildwick scheme would be replaced by a "scaled down solution".

And it is proposed to detrunk three of Craven's busiest roads -- the A65 from Burley in Wharfedale up to the M6, the A59 from Skipton to the M6 at Preston, and the A629.

The news was met with dismay in the A65 villages, which suffer a pounding as heavy traffic travels between West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and the Lake District.

"I have received many calls, and everyone is bitterly disappointed. We have got to put up with this horrendous traffic, night and day," said Gargrave's District Coun Jean Harrison.

But despite the bad news, residents, councillors and MP David Curry have vowed to fight on to secure bypasses in the next millennium.

Already parish councillors in Long Preston, Hellifield and Coniston Cold -- whose bypass was shelved previously -- have got together with Gargrave Parish Councils to form an A65 bypasses action group.

It is spearheaded by Coun David Crawford, who represents Hellifield and Coniston Cold on Craven District Council.

He said: "We will continue to press for bypasses, but any chance of getting bypasses on detrunked roads is probably hopeless.

"The detrunking of the A65 is a very retrograde step. It puts the responsibility for maintenance and safety on to the county council, which is strapped for cash."

Michael Anderson, clerk to Long Preston Parish Council, spoke of widespread dismay.

He said: "The parish council is not prepared to accept this decision and will continue to campaign, along with other parish councils, for a bypass.

"The traffic calming we now have may have slowed the traffic down, but it has not cut the volume. The Government is not building a bypass, so what is it going to do to alleviate the traffic?"

Chairman of Hellifield Parish Council, Jeremy Sample, pointed out that traffic was likely to increase with visitor attractions at Hellifield Station, and the proposed Hellifield Rural Environment Centre.

He said: "The bypasses decision is desperately bad news. When you look at the increasing amount of traffic, it makes it worse than ever."

MP David Curry, who supported pleas for bypasses, was also disappointed.

He said: "The Government is absolutely wrong to take them out of the programme. I don't know how anyone could argue that they are not needed on environmental grounds given the amount of filth, muck and pollution that pours into the villages, and I don't see how anyone could argue they are not needed on safety grounds.

"The Government has condemned the people to absolute misery."

Mr Curry added he would be talking to local authorities, and Government Ministers on the detrunking issue.

If the A65 is detrunked, North Yorkshire County Council will be responsible for it, and for any schemes along it -- including bypasses.

Mike Moore, director of environmental services at the county council, said: "There will naturally be disappointment that schemes on the A65 for Gargrave, Hellifield and Long Preston have been withdrawn from the national trunk road programme. It means that traffic problems will persist for villages in this area.

"We will have to look again at our plans for this road to see what improvements we may be able to make."

* A campaign group is calling for urgent safety measures to be introduced along a busy stretch of road now that a major widening scheme has been axed.

The £14.5 million A629 improvements survived two public inquiries but failed to get past John Prescott's massive trunk road review.

The scheme would have seen a new stretch of dual carriageway built next to the existing A629 between roundabouts at Kildwick and Snaygill.

The Highways Agency has revealed that the scheme will be replaced by scaled-down proposals, but details of these have not yet been published.

Anti-road campaigners Save Aire Valley's Environment had had opposed the scheme.

"Obviously the Government's scrapping of the proposed A629 dual carriageway has delighted us," said SAVE's secretary Lee Osborne.

"Action is now urgently needed to carry out the safety measures we suggested during our campaign against this dual carriageway."

These include:

* Warning signs, white lines across the road, speed cameras and a reduced speed limit at Cononley bends.

* Moving Cononley Lane Ends junction approximately 200 metres to the north to give increased visibility.

* No right turn from Ings Lane out of Bradley.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.