HIGHWAYS bosses have come under fire after fresh roadworks started on a main road near York despite the stretch being worked on repeatedly over the past few years.

The Highways Agency is currently enforcing 40mph speed restrictions between 6pm and 6am on the westbound A64 dual carriageway, from just west of the Colton Lane junction, to just east of the eastward A1036 sliproad including the area around the recently-completed Bilbrough Top flyover.

The speed restrictions are expected to apply for the next three months, and will be signposted on the affected stretch.

Brian Percival the Selby District councillor for Appleton Roebuck, said: "You've really got to question why these roadworks are being done now, after the recent roadworks at Bilbrough Top and the Copmanthorpe junction.

"Why are they having to do the work now why has the road deteriorated so much?

"Wouldn't the money be better spent on the much-needed bus stop at Redhill Field Lane?"

The roadworks are likely to affect many commuters returning to York in the evening, as well as night time visitors to the city.

The Bilbrough Top flyover was opened in June last year, allowing traffic travelling between Colton and Bilbrough to pass underneath the A64, rather than crossing the dual carriageway using dangerous gaps in the central reservation, which have since been closed following a Press campaign.

But a Highways Agency spokeswoman insisted the works did not involve the flyover. She said: "The work being done on the A64 is nothing to do with the Bilbrough Top flyover.

"It's routine maintenance work to the east of the flyover, which we couldn't do while the flyover work was being done."

She said workmen would be undertaking carriageway and structural repairs.

The A64's last big roadworks, when an underpass was constructed at Copmanthorpe, caused jams to build up in the autumn of 2001, with knock-on congestion problems on many roads in York and nearby villages.