HOPES that a bridge could be built to ease congestion at a busy level crossing have suffered a major setback.

Council officials have recommended that design work on the £5m project for Low Gates in North End, Northallerton, be stopped.

Campaigners have attacked the recommendation, claiming it will condemn residents to years of traffic congestion.

David Clarke, chairman of the Hambleton branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, said: "It would be a catastrophe for the people of Northallerton.

"That level crossing gets closed for an extremely long time, up to 25 minutes in an hour, according to the work done by Newcastle University.

"There are now proposals to run still more trains on that line, particularly with this application to run trains from Sunderland to London.

"When the crossing is closed, it leaves queues right back into the middle of Northallerton."

He said the results of public consultation had shown the crossing was a major concern to people in the town.

"If they are not going to do this, they are going to condemn Northallerton to even worse traffic than in the past and ignore the results of the public consultation," he added.

Mike Moore, director of environmental services at North Yorkshire County Council, has recommended that four schemes, including the Low Gates project and a bypass for Killinghall, be taken off a list of major projects to be progressed in the next four years.

He said the cost of designing the four schemes has risen by £3.2m to £7m in the past eight months.

Plans for a bypass on the A165 in Reighton, near Filey, and a £27m transport scheme for Scarborough have been backed by the Government.

Mr Moore said: "No other of the county council's major schemes within North Yorkshire has been given priority support by the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly and Yorkshire Forward, whose priority assessment criteria are heavily weighted towards the major urban areas and to measures which promote public and freight transport.

"Under the present priority criteria, there is considered to be little prospect that support funding will be granted for these schemes.

"The continuation of work on these schemes would not represent value for money for the council."

The final decision will be taken by the county council's executive on Tuesday.