A new road could be built into the heart of York from the Outer Ring Road, the Evening Press can reveal today.

Keyland Developments, which has a stake in York Business Park alongside the ring road at Poppleton, has raised the possibility of constructing a new route between the park and Water End.

If the road went ahead, it could be linked into another new section of road which is already being mooted by City of York Council to run from Water End into a large area of land behind York railway station.

Better access into this teardrop-shaped site is seen as being crucial to the success of plans for a major re-development scheme which could create hundreds of jobs.

Keyland, a sister company of Yorkshire Water, said that a conversation had taken place with the council about the possibility of building a road, but stressed that the idea was still "pre-embryonic."

A spokesman added: "This is one potential solution among a number to put some form of infrastructure into what is known as the teardrop site. But it's very early days."

The new road would run roughly parallel with the East Coast line railway tracks and the River Ouse, but cross the York-Harrogate line.

City of York Council stressed that the road idea was at a very early stage and had simply been suggested to it as an idea by Keyland Developments.

Roy Templeman, director of environment and development services, said he would not want to dismiss the suggestion at this stage, but nor could he say it was feasible.

There might be potential benefits in taking traffic off the A59 and A19 but also all kinds of engineering problems, and questions over the access of traffic onto the outer ring road. The authority would leave it up to Keyland to investigate the idea further.

Meanwhile, the council was still looking in conjunction with landowners and occupiers at how some re-development scheme could be brought forward for the land behind the station.

It was likely detailed proposals would be drawn up later this year with a major public consultation carried out.

The scheme would create employment, and might include offices, some leisure use, bio-science development, but he stressed that it would not include retail uses. Plans for almost 200 homes on part of the site had already been announced by Wilcon, he added.

The idea of the new road from the ring road to Water End has been criticised by York Cyclist Touring Club spokesman Paul Hepworth, who believed it would bring extra traffic into York.

"I am appalled and will certainly put energy into opposing any such idea to bring more traffic and pollution in to the city," he said.

But he felt the road from Water End into the teardrop development site would be acceptable provided some cycle access was included in the scheme.

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