VILLAGERS who have campaigned for years for a bypass to divert heavy traffic away from their homes are to make a new high-profile plea to councillors.

Residents of Thormanby, near Easingwold, have seen four deaths and countless other accidents in recent years on the notorious A19 road which runs through their community.

They have just three months to persuade transport chiefs at North Yorkshire County Council that a £2.1m bypass scheme should be included in the authority's bid for Government funding un-der the local transport plan.

After a meeting with Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh and county councillor Peter Sowray, community leaders are stepping up their campaign.

The parish council is to write to every member of the county council to ask for their support.

It is also sending out a fact sheet setting out the accident record on the road, which sees 10,000 vehicles, including 1,600 heavy goods vehicles, pass through Thormanby every day.

Parish council chairman Barry Dodd said all members of the county council would be invited to visit the village to see the scale of the problem for themselves.

"They would only have to stand at the top of the hill and see the traffic thundering towards them to see that there is a terrible accident waiting to happen," he said