RESIDENTS in Pool-in-Wharfedale were left fuming after roadworks paralysed their village.

Tailbacks of up to five miles have been reported during the afternoon rush hour on the main road to Harrogate thanks to a 'double whammy' of work at Old Pool Bank's junction with Main Street and on Arthington Lane.

Queues of traffic have been stretching almost all the way to the outskirts of Bradford in one direction and past Huby towards Harrogate in the other.

And the disruption has had a knock-on effect on neighbouring communities, with traffic levels increasing in places like Otley and Bramhope as motorists desperately try to avoid the trouble-spot.

Residents and councillors including Barry Anderson (Con, Adel and Wharfedale) are also worried about the impact on emergency vehicle access and bus passengers.

Coun Anderson said: "I'm very upset, I was on the road last Thursday morning and it was horrendous. And there's a potential risk that if emergency services needed to get up and down there what on earth are they going to do?

"The Arthington Lane road improvement works were not completed on time and so clashed with the start of the Yorkshire Electricity Distribution (YEDL) work in the middle of Pool on August 15. Two important events have collided at the same time, that is what has caused the problem.

"There's been no co-ordination, they haven't thought it through because somebody must have known the YEDL work was about to start and the Arthington Lane work wasn't finished. They should have worked something out.

"More could have been done to at least warn the residents once it became apparent we'd have this problem. "I've told council officers that we're losing the PR battle in Pool - I've had complaints from all over.

"I do genuinely apologise to residents, I'm sorry for all the problems that have been caused but I'm doing everything I possibly can to get a solution and am relying on the professionalism of officers."

Pool Parish Councillor Judith Davey said: "With with works on both roads at the same time it has caused a great deal of distress. It really is chaos! The organisers of this lot should go back and see what they can do because we're living with it now.

"We've had it bad in the past but I think this tops it. It's been badly handled and I don't know what on earth people trying to catch buses in the village have done - I should think they've had to give up."

Some believe the YEDL work, which has required temporary lights to control traffic as the road is narrowed to allow the laying of a power cable, would have caused major problems even without the Arthington Road scheme.

But YEDL, which is laying six kilometres of cable between the electricity sub-station at Pool paper mills and Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA), actually postponed its work in the village earlier this year to avoid clashing with other repairs.

YEDL spokesman David Gill said: "We understand the disruption this causes and always try and keep it to a minimum. We've done everything we can and postponed the work and put it back while under extra pressure from the airport to get it done.

"We've had regular meetings with the local authority and are as disappointed as anybody to find out we're there and our work is impacting, coincidentally, with other work.

"We're at a vital part of the project and the council have decided, for whatever reason, that they would resurface Arthington Lane at the same time."

Councillor Clive Fox, meanwhile, is laying the blame squarely on the doorstep of LBA.

He said: "The airport's cabling requirement has in effect made Pool a no-go area.

"It is complete nonsense that this trenching work is being carried out through the centre of the village when they could have gone across the fields to the west and avoided all this disruption in the firstplace.

"There was an alternative but the airport never considered the implications and the impact on other people's everyday lives."

The airport, however, insists it simply asked YEDL to upgrade its power supply - and it was up to the company how it chose to do that.

A spokesman for Leeds City Council said: "We make every effort to co-ordinate all road works throughout Leeds. Both our own works on Arthington Lane and the YEDL work nearby had been identified and we had planned to carry out our works before YEDL progressed to the same area.

"Unfortunately, wet weather caused a delay to the Arthington Lane scheme and this led to a short overlap in the two schemes.

"The YEDL work has been scheduled to finish before the increase in traffic associated with the new school term. We have relaxed some of the peak hour working restrictions in order to try and enable YEDL to meet this deadline.

"We will remain in constant contact with YEDL's contractor to ensure the

outstanding work is done quickly and with as little disruption as possible."

He added that another two days' of work on Arthington Lane which would

see the road closed to traffic were needed, but no dates have been

scheduled for the work yet.

*YEDL says it is due to be complete work in Pool by the end of next week.