Worried residents say they are considering selling up because their quiet leafy suburb has turned into an escape route for commercial traffic and commuters.

And one resident of Osbaldwick is so concerned she has spent the past month doing her own traffic surveys which she intends to present to City of York Council.

Sylvia Sunley's surveys show up to 270 vehicles passing her house an hour -an increase of almost 100 an hour compared to council surveys done three years ago.

Sylvia, 65, who has lived in the village's main street all her life, blames new traffic lights on the Hull Road, the growing Osbaldwick Industrial Estate and the brand-new B&Q for the problem.

She said: "You come out on a morning and think it's just like the old times and all of a sudden you get all this traffic. You have to see it to believe it."

According to Sylvia and her brother Keith, who lives with her, drivers coming in to York from the Hull Road are using Murton Way to nip under the carriageway and avoid the Grimston Bar Roundabout, carrying on through the village to gain access to the city centre.

Drivers coming out of the city perform the same trick in reverse and the industrial estate and B&Q have meant the village is also being inundated with HGVs which exceed the 7.5tonne limit.

The problem has become noticeably worse since B&Q opened because customers returning to York are turning left down Osbaldwick Link Road rather than queuing at the lights to turn right onto Hull Road.

Keith said: "The council should have put in a no left turn sign."

Meanwhile Wendy and Ronald Cuttill, of Murton Way, Osbaldwick, say the problems will get worse if plans for the New Osbaldwick village go ahead.

Mrs Cuttill said: "It's got very much worse since they started building B&Q and now it's open, customers are coming through the village until 7pm seven-days-a-week.

"It's getting to be quite a freeway.

"It was a little village lane with horses and bikes and now it's just a link through from B&Q to Huntington.

"It's alarming how fast they're going through - it's an accident waiting to happen.

"When they build New Osbaldwick it will be a nightmare because we'll have traffic coming from 500 odd houses to B&Q for at least the first few years.

"We're frightened and we're thinking of selling."

David Young, City of York Council's principal engineer in highway development has written to Sylvia saying the police will be asked to enforce the ban on vehicles above 7.5 tonnes and the new B&Q traffic will be monitored in May.

"They should be doing a traffic survey now," she said.

"I'm calling for some sort of control on the traffic to stop everyone just using the village as a quick route through."

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