A £2m scheme to save lives at the notorious Manor Park bends on the A65 should be scrapped in favour of a plan costing one-tenth of that price, claimed Ilkley Civic Society this week.

And Manor Park residents should be given £5,000 each to create turning circles in their front garden so they didn't have to back out into speeding traffic.

But their ideas are not shared by Manor Park residents who see the Highway Agency's new road plan as the only solution to their traffic nightmare.

In a letter to Bradford Council's highways design unit, which is acting as contractor for the plan, civic society chairman Bob Tilley says: "We suggest that the current traffic calming scheme is permitted to work and be supported by a 50 mph speed limit.

"We also believe the Highways Agency scheme is excessively expensive and the funds would be better invested in public transport improvements or park and ride facilities."

Included in the civic society suggestions are traffic islands at the Little Chef restaurant and at Southway to allow safer turning. The whole cost of the civic society proposals would be around £200,000.

But Manor Park resident Tony Clark said that the civic society plan would not solve the nightmare residents faced when trying to drive into the flow of traffic.

"Quite a few residents have turned their gardens into paving so they can go in and out head first but they still can't get across the road. On a practical basis I don't think it would really cure the problem.

"People who live at the back of Manor Park come out onto the road head first but they still can't get out."

Mr Clark said he would have difficulty turning his own front garden into a vehicle turning circle because of a steep slope and the mature trees in the way.

The Highway Agency proposals would involve all Manor Park traffic having to drive to the roundabout at Burley-in-Wharfedale to join the A65, but Mr Clark said that because of the amount of traffic on the trunk route, residents had to do that already because it was impossible to turn right from Southway.

"I always turn left to the roundabout rather than trying to cross two lines of traffic. I have been here for 15 years and it has got worse every year," said Mr Clark.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said that the draft orders for the road alterations would be announced early next year and Ilkley civic society or anyone else would then get the opportunity to make formal objections to the plan.

But Ilkley district councillor Colin Powell (Con), who lives at Manor Park, said residents were happy with the Highways Agency plan.

He said that traffic calming measures did seem to have had a major effect on traffic speeding around Manor Park bends.

"While there haven't been any serious accidents recently, there is always an accident waiting to happen while those bends are there," said Coun Powell.

He added: "I still feel the need for a bypass and the residents absolutely feel the same way."

The civic society has also suggested that the bus stops included in the Highway Agency plan were dangerously placed and should be moved.

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