NORTH Yorkshire county councillors were today discussing further delays to a village bypass scheme.

The Shipton A19 bypass has been put back by a Government decision to remove trunk status from the A19, passing responsibility for the road from the Highways Agency to North Yorkshire County Council.

Construction of the scheme was previously scheduled to start in 2008, but this has now been delayed by the de-trunking measures.

Chairman of Shipton Parish Council Clifford Smith said: "It is very, very disappointing. The village has been waiting for a bypass for 65 years, it was first mentioned in 1938, and has been brought up every few years since then.

"In the interim, a succession of Governments and councillors have agreed to the plans, only for them to be dismissed a couple of years later. Now they say 2008 or later, but we have no idea who will be in power then, will the plan just be changed again?"

Bill Hiles, chairman of the Shipton bypass committee, was also very disappointed, and wanted to know the real reasons behind the change. "We need to know just how the council decides its priorities, our village suffers from volume of traffic, noise, fumes and vibration and the division of the community by the main road," he said.

"Now they are putting solving these problems back even more - exactly what do they consider important?"

Molly Haigh, Hambleton District councillor for Shipton,: "We do get very discouraged by setback after setback, but we are anxious to keep it up, we are still going to keep fighting and hoping."

Updated: 10:53 Tuesday, April 15, 2003