THE Highways Agency is having to start all over again with revived plans for a three-lane A1 motorway between Dishforth and Barton.

Transport minister, John Spellar, this week unveiled Government plans for a £263m upgrade stretching from Bramham, in West Yorkshire, to Barton.

Detailed designs have still to be drawn up, however, and it is not yet known how much of the original schemes proposed between Dishforth and Barton, shelved almost six years ago, can still be used.

Building of these schemes is now expected to start in 2007-2008 if all statutory procedures, including any public inquiries, are satisfactorily completed.

The original schemes between Dishforth and Barton, revealed in 1994, proposed new junctions at Leeming Bar, Catterick and Scotch Corner, where the A66 is taken over the A1 on an often congested flyover.

Highway Agency engineers are returning to their drawing boards for the resurrected schemes, and a spokeswoman said: "The agency will use what it can from the previous plans, but obviously some of the conditions on the road will have changed since they were drawn up and new developments have taken place which will have to be taken into account.

"Detailed designs have still to be drawn up and these will have to be advertised and open to public comment. If objections are received which cannot be resolved there may well have to be public inquiries.

"In some respects the agency is beginning from square one."

The revived upgrading has been generally welcomed by business leaders, road hauliers and the Automobile Association, and have raised hopes that Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar will get their long-awaited relief road connecting with a new junction at Leeming Bar.

At the same time, however, they look likely to bring renewed uncertainty and the threat of a property blight for some people living alongside the existing A1 dual carriageway.

Properties originally bought up by the Highways Agency were put back on the open market a year after the previous motorway proposals were shelved in 1996.

The Yorkshire and Humber Assembly welcomed the announcement but called for similar bold moves to upgrade other parts of the region's road and rail networks.

Coun Peter Box, chairman, said the A1 upgrade was only one piece of the transport jigsaw that urgently needed addressing.

"We are continuing to argue the case with Government to increase our share of the country's rail investment. Rail and road are both critical to the economic success of this region."

* Motorway reports in detail: page 12