ROADWORKS in Pool-in-Wharfedale are to be suspended by Yorkshire Electricity after the company came under fire from concerned villagers.

Yorkshire Electricity Distri-bution Limited (YEDL) has announced it will halt its power cable laying work in Pool once it reaches the junction with Main Street.

The decision was taken after residents and councillors pointed out to the company that its scheme was coinciding with repairs being carried out to the village's bridge - so causing motorists and residents a double headache.

But the positive news has been undermined by fears that the entire scheme could actually take up to four months to complete, rather than the four weeks originally announced.

Project Engineer for the YEDL work, John McCann, said: "It is always our aim to minimise disruption caused by our cable laying activities and we have taken this decision to assist residents and motorists.

"Whilst work in the village is suspended, we will start cable laying from the other end of the route at the airport."

Some six kilometres of power cables are being laid between the electricity sub-station at Pool Paper Mills to Leeds Bradford Airport.

The next round of excavations will now start at Whitehouse Lane, Yeadon, and turn right up the A658 (Harrogate Road) before proceeding onto Old Pool Bank.

Most of the excavation work will be on the verges but traffic management systems will be in operation on the roads to protect workmen.

The decision to route the cable along several main roads, and the short notice given about the work starting, sparked an angry reaction in Pool last week.

Leeds City (Con, Adel and Wharfedale) and Bramhope Parish Councillor Clive Fox was unimpressed with the new announcement, claiming it was just "delaying the inevitable."

And Coun Fox, who talked this week to an engineer working on the project, claims there was no technical reason why the power cables couldn't be run through fields rather than along the roads.

He was told the reason that hadn't happened was that it would have taken a year to go through the necessary legal process with landowners.

But Coun Fox believes the airport has been considering upgrading its electricity supply for years.

He said: "It transpires that the responsibility for the further traffic chaos proposed for Pool lies squarely with the airport.

"Had they made up their minds a year ago what their requirements were going to be, the trenching works could have avoided Pool village altogether.

"I do not believe the airport has given any consideration to the consequences of the cabling work being carried out on their behalf.

"It is not just commuter traffic that's affected. We know that the everyday lives of people living in Pool are totally disrupted whenever Main Street is affected by road works.

"They are sick and tired of the place for ever being dug up for one reason or another.

"As it is, Pool is faced with the prospect some time this spring of basically having to shut down for up to a month because the airport considers its needs greater than Pool's.

"This latest episode is particularly unnecessary because there is an obvious alternative.

"Even at this late stage, I question whether the airport's need to upgrade its electricity supply is so urgent it cannot contemplate waiting for just a few months to allow the necessary easements to be obtained which would permit the cable to be taken across then fields, avoiding Pool altogether."

A spokesman for Leeds Bradford Airport said: "Due to the increased activity at the airport, the power supply we have is not sufficient so we asked YEDL to upgrade it, and it was YEDL's own decision to come from Pool.

"We've know that we've needed power for some time, although I don't think it's been two years, and we've only been talking to YEDL since the middle of last year. We can't dictate how they bring the supply to us."

Pool Parish Council Chairman Councillor Hazel Lee gave a cautious welcome to the news that the Main Street works would be delayed.

She said: "This will delay things a bit so I suppose it's a little better.

"But I can't see why they can't go through the fields, following the gas pipe, and avoiding all this trouble.

"It may seem a small thing but when they come down Old Pool Bank, where I live, someone has just planted 500 bulbs on the verges there and now they're all going to be dug up again.

"That's just really frustrating because a lot of effort was put in."

YEDL says it will not re-start work on the Main Street of Pool until the bridge repairs have been completed.