Plans to dual the York Outer Ring Road are set to be approved next week.
But a protest is planned before the City of York Council planning committee by campaigners who decry the plan as ‘environmental destruction’.
Plans for improvements to the York Outer Ring Road, including its dualling, were revised following an initial application in 2022 and are now recommended for approval by council officers.
The plans also include improvements to roundabouts, provision of a three-mile shared-use cycle and pedestrian route, signalised crossing facilities for active travel users, two overbridges and six underpasses for pedestrians and cyclists.
They will be discussed at a meeting at 2.30pm on Tuesday (19 March).
Keane Duncan, Conservative mayoral candidate, said: “Dualling the ring road is absolutely essential.
“We must end York’s daily traffic misery by finally delivering this long overdue infrastructure upgrade.
“I fully support this project and hope it can secure approval at long last.”
David Skaith, Labour’s candidate, said: “It’s important we have a complete and joined up plan for transport in York and the wider region.
“The council inherited the initial plan for the dualling scheme from the previous Liberal Democrat Green coalition.
“What is vital now is how we develop on this initial scheme and become far more ambitious in how we reduce overall car journeys by improving the bus network, investigate the potential for light rail and invest in cycling infrastructure which I will do if elected Mayor in May.”
‘No new road building’
There are 150 objections to the plans, with York Environment Forum, York Green Party and York Cycle Campaign among those in opposition.
Now members of Extinction Rebellion (XR) York are organising a protest against the ring road dualling plan.
A spokesperson said they wanted to “send a firm message to City of York Council that there can be no new road building in a climate emergency”.
Protestors will gather outside York council’s West Offices HQ before the planning committee meeting.
XR York says: “Transport accounts for a third of the country’s total carbon emissions and it is the only sector where emissions have increased since 1990.
“To avoid climate catastrophe, we need to oppose road building schemes like the one here in York.
“While the council claims that the dualling of the ring road will reduce congestion and move cars out of the city centre, it has been repeatedly shown that increased road capacity generates more, not less, traffic.
“The building of new or expanded roads also involves large amounts of embodied carbon and causes environmental destruction due to the clearing of land.”