COUNCILLORS are to be asked to approve the compulsory purchase of a huge swathe of land in North Yorkshire to allow a new bypass to be built.

North Yorkshire County Council is to pay £6.5 million towards the three-mile route around Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar, with £35.9 million coming from the Department for Transport.

The authority’s executive will next week discuss making a compulsory purchase order and a side roads order which will allow it to buy the title and rights to 33.5 hectares of land in the parishes of Bedale, Aiskew and Scruton, either side of the A1(M).