HELMSLEY traders and residents have won their fight to keep car parking in the town's Market Place and have succeeded in blocking plans for one-way traffic systems.

Three options had been put to the town in a bid to improve the traffic problem and road safety, and now, North Yorkshire County Council's Ryedale area committee has backed the residents' preferred option of traffic calming in Ashdale Road and Carlton Lane, to make the area around the town's county primary school safer.

The junction of Riccal Drive and the A170 Scarborough to Thirsk road is also being upgraded.

Chris Millns, of the county authority's environmental services department, said "There was a very big response to our house-to-house questionnaires and public exhibition." He said that a number of people had also said there was a need to improve road signs in Helmsley for tourists.

Town councillor Geoff Nichsolson said: "The Market Place has been there for a thousand years and it works well. Cars don't cause hazards or hold-ups. We don't want Helmsley urbanising."

One of the main objectors to radical changes in Helmsley's traffic management came from English Heritage.

Ian Smith, regional land use planner, said: "Many of the changes would have had an adverse impact on numerous aspects of the historical environment in Helmsley."