Road safety campaigners are vowing to continue their fight for a by-pass at Manor Park Bends - despite the planned installation of speed cameras.

The fight to realign the road has been going on for almost 70 years - and residents say it is the only realistic solution to the traffic problems.

A 40 mile per hour limit has already been imposed at the notorious accident blackspot - and this is expected to be backed up by speed cameras within the year.

But the cameras will simply create traffic jams rather than solve the root cause of the problem, according to by-pass supporters.

John Traynier, of the A65 Road Safety Committee, said cameras could never be the solution, because if everyone did stick to the speed limit it would lead to massive tailbacks.

And he warned that at peak times the sheer volume of traffic going slowly could lead to gridlock.

He now wants to see a new road created behind Manor Park and up towards Middleton, and he stressed: "We are saying that the only answer is a by-pass."

A £5m by-pass was approved by Bradford council for the bends two years ago. The scheme, to create a new, straighter section of the carriageway on fields south of the existing road was submitted to the Government in 2002.

The Department of Transport deferred a decision on the bid in December 2002 until less expensive and less intrusive measures were put on trial and assessed.

But local campaigners were shocked when they were told in a joint statement from the Govern-ment and Bradford Council in May 2003 that the scheme would not be re-submitted until a future financial year.

Mr Traynier said: "The land that they had earmarked for the by-pass has been returned to the original owners. All hopes of getting the road on that land have now gone."

But he called for the resurrection of earlier proposals which would route the by-pass behind Manor Park and up to Middleton.

Mr Traynier said the need to re-align the road was first identified in 1926, and he stressed: "If it was required in 1926 surely there is a case now."

Residents have fought a long running battle for a by-pass - even consulting human rights legislation to take their case forward.

Mr Traynier claimed local people were suffering from the noise and pollution of vehicles. He said they were unable to get in and out of their own drives and unable to cross the road because of the volume of traffic.

A plan to re-align the bends was floated by the Department of Transport in 1990 - five years later a £60,000 road marking scheme was decided on instead.

The campaign gained new impetus when accident figures for 2001 showed that the crash rate had trebled, with three people dying in the 15 smashes.