COUNCIL bosses say they hope to complete a £500,000-plus upgrade to a popular riverside walk and cycle route BEFORE Leeman Road is closed next year - but admit they cannot guarantee it.

Local people living in the Leeman Road area say the path, between Jubilee Terrace and Scarborough Bridge, provides quick and easy access to the city centre for cyclists and pedestrians.

It will be even more vital once the National Railway Museum closes the city centre end of Leeman Road in October next year to start construction on the expanded museum, they say.

David Finch, chairperson of the Friends of Leeman Park, said the riverside path was a 'beautiful, popular and direct route to York for thousands of residents'.

York Press: The popular riverside path and cycle route between Jubilee Terrace and Scarborough Bridge

He welcomed the council's plans to upgrade it. "The path needs improvements to make it safer at night, wider and less susceptible to flooding," he said.

But he urged the authority to make sure the work on the path was completed before Leeman Road closed.

Failure to do that would leave thousands of residents without a direct pedestrian route into the city, he said.

Instead, they would be forced to use the proposed alternative road route around the back of the NRM.

"This will be a long, lonely diversion around a building site that won’t have the natural surveillance of through traffic and will double the distance of the riverside route," he said. People returning home from work or the city centre on a dark winter evening would feel less safe than they do on the riverside path, he added.

Council bosses confirmed in April that they had approved £500,000 for 'vital' work on the footpath, after years of lobbying - though they accept the work is likely to cost much more than that, and further funding will need to be found.

York Press: Leeman Road as it is now, with the two halves of the National Railway Museum on either side of the road. A new Central Gallery is proposed for the area, which will lead to the road being closed

The path is liable to flooding, which can leave it impassable as many as ten times a year. The upgrade will aim to make the path more flood-poof by raising it at its lower points. The council also hopes to improve lighting.

But after years of delays - mainly caused by 'land-ownership issues' - locals are concerned the work could drag on, and not be completed before the closure of Leeman Road.

The council does now have control of all the land along the route. And James Gilchrist, the authority's director of environment, transport and planning, said feasibility work was due to start this summer.

"We will be contacting stakeholder groups and ward councillors to ensure they are involved," he said.

"We are aiming to deliver this upgrade before the changes are made to Leeman Road. However, the programme for the delivery of the works is dependent on the scope of the scheme and any consents required."

Leman Road cannot be closed before the alternative road route around the National Railay Museum is open, he pointed out.