A CONTROVERSIAL revamp of roads used as a short cut to a Richmond industrial estate has been scrapped while engineers look for a less radical solution.

People with homes on Quarry Road have been lobbying North Yorkshire County Council to come up with something which will stop workers from the Gallowfields trading estate using the residential street as a short-cut into town.

When the authority's Richmondshire area committee met in Middleham on Monday night it was supposed to consider the introduction of a one-way segment where Quarry Road joins Hurgill Road as well as speed humps and cushions on Sycamore Avenue and Maple Road.

However, before a 70-minute debate began, highways officers admitted they had to rush consultation so that they could compile a report in time for the meeting.

As 30 people had made the 13-mile journey from Richmond to voice their objections, officials were willing to go back to the drawing board.

In the end, the committee voted unanimously to support Councillor John Blackie's proposal that engineers should be asked to come up with an experimental alternative which would address Quarry Road's problems without forcing them on to other residential roads in the same area.

In the meantime, the county council will continue to work on a feasibility study focusing on the possibility of a new road to the industrial estate.