York’s Conservative councillors have criticised the ongoing failure of the current Labour and previous Lib Dem administration’s to dual the ring road. Last year planning permission was given to dual 4.6 miles of the A1237 and improve roundabouts but it now looks likely that Labour will remove funding for part of the ring road and divert £5 million towards the Station Gateway.
Cllr Martin Rowley, Deputy Leader of York’s Conservative Group slammed the failures, saying:
We all know the A1237 should have been two lanes when it was first built nearly 40 years ago and the need has grown ever greater as traffic number have increased. Sadly York residents have just watched in disappointment as by incompetence or deliberate policy the current Labour administration and previous Lib Dems have not taken the project forward.
The previous MP for York Outer Julian Sturdy did a great job leading the campaign to dual the A1237 and this was backed by the 2015-19 Conservative led council at York. After a decade of campaigning, Julian secured funding for dualling the ring road in 2019. He then secured additional funds for the project in 2023 after delays by the Lib Dem-led council had caused costs to rise.
The dualling work should be well underway but instead we were messed about by the previous Lib Dem administration who took the project nowhere with the absurdity of having their coalition partner the then Green councillor Andy D’Agorne in charge of transport and the project, he was someone who did not support the dualling and predictably it went nowhere.
Now Labour in York are planning to divert money from the ring road to the totally unrelated plans to improve the area around York station. This feels a huge snub to York Outer and it is no wonder people say Labour councillors take their passports with them when they leave the city centre.
Dualling of the A1237 is needed now and it is time all York political parties joined the Conservatives in backing the project rather than paying it lip service
