The Government today announced a £2.2 million scheme to switch off traffic lights on the A64 at Copmanthorpe and close the lethal gap.

News of the plans came as a coroner called for ALL A64 central reservation gaps to be shut after hearing how an elderly motorist died trying to cross the dual carriageway.

Under the Highways Agency's revised scheme for the Copmanthorpe Top Lane junction, a new link road would be built to take village drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to an underpass beneath the A64. The dual carriageway would be moved four metres further away from the village, so that nearby householders would avoid losing the ends of their gardens and a two-metre tree-lined barrier could be built to protect villagers from the noise of traffic.

The plans include a pedestrian/cyclist route alongside the link road and also traffic lights at the new junction between the link road and A1036 Tadcaster Road.

The gap giving access to Pike Hills Golf Club would also shut and access to the A64 from nearby houses would be removed.

An exhibition on the scheme will be held next Friday and Saturday at the Women's Institute Hall in Station Road, Copmanthorpe.

Coroner Michael Oakley spoke out after recording a verdict of death by misadventure at an inquest on 74-year-old Geoffrey Loft, of Hutton, near Driffield, who died when the car he was travelling in tried to turn right from Kirkham towards Malton and was hit by a BMW travelling towards York.

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