Controversial plans to move queuing traffic and give buses priority on a York road should be reconsidered, council officers have said.

The scheme, to place extra sets of traffic lights along Shipton Road and Bootham, install bus priority lanes and ban right turns into Bootham from Gillygate, created massive public opposition.

Councillors will be recommended to reconsider sections of it at a meeting on Thursday.

But opponents have called on the council to scrap the plans altogether. Dr Roger Wools, chairman of the Bootham & Clifton Conservation Group, said: "We are relying next week on the good sense of York's councillors to reject this devastating proposal for the bus lane in its entirety.

"It will be a short-term solution that will leave this historic city looking like, at best, any industrial city and, at worst, a bombsite. The effect will be like a hurricane has headed through the conservation area almost to the doors of York Minster.

"All of the proposals should be abandoned."

Councillors will be recommended to look again at proposals for bus priority lanes in Bootham and Shipton Road between Loweswater Road and Rawcliffe Lane. Banning right turns at the Gillygate and Bootham junction will be recommended for review.

Cycle and pedestrian measures and some traffic signals have been recommended for further development.

More than 5,000 households in the area were leafleted by City of York Council during consultation on the scheme, designed to tackle congestion and pollution and further the authority's policy of encouraging public transport and cycle use. Thousands also attended public consultations.

The vast majority were opposed to proposals including bus priority, although other plans including cycling measures were supported.

Coun Mark Waudby, who opposes the scheme, said today: "I am pleased that they haven't jumped to any real conclusions about this and have asked that councillors go back and consult further.

"Some of the schemes, I have no doubt, will be put forward and will eventually happen, but I think those that do will be the ones that are needed, such as traffic lights at the junction with Burton Stone Lane."

Opponents feared a potential increase in noise and pollution caused by stationary vehicles at traffic lights. Concern was voiced that greenery along the roads would be damaged by the work.

Officers have recommended that further work includes public consultation.

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