Officials have confirmed planning for a new road between the M62 and M1 is continuing behind the scenes.

An ambitious proposal to resurrect a 30-year-old scheme to connect the two motorways through North Kirklees was revealed in July last year.

More than twelve months on and little has been revealed about where the road – dubbed the North Kirklees Orbital (NKO) – will go.

Kirklees Council officers have been tight lipped about the exact route for fear of devaluing homes.

In the early 1980s plans to build a route that snaked through the countryside of Hartshead, Roberttown and across Dewsbury Moor was ditched amid a lack of support from Kirklees Council.

A map about the scheme published last year shows the “area of interest” includes the green belt and greenfield areas north of Mirfield.

But it is now thought the road is more likely to follow the route of existing roads and rail lines to the south of the area, close to the River Calder.

Documents published recently by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, say it will “follow the existing orientation of the A644 and A638 respectively and incorporate a new 9km section” – suggesting the proposal had been watered down to merely upgrading existing roads with a 9km bypass south of Dewsbury.

Kirklees Council planning officials said any details about the route published currently were just “suggestions.”

But the council’s cabinet member responsible, Clr Peter McBride, told the Examiner there were still plans for an entirely new road across North Kirklees.

He said it was likely it would be built close to the existing A-roads and would cost well over £100m if given the green light.

It is thought the worst bottle necks such as Mirfield, Ravensthorpe and Dewsbury ring road, will be by-passed, requiring some demolition and construction on current green spaces.

It is currently unclear what is happening with the Cooper Bridge congestion hot spot but a separate scheme to tackle traffic issues there is also under consideration.

A spokesperson for Kirklees Council said: “The grant of £247k from the West Yorkshire Transport Fund is to evaluate a number of options for providing an alternative route for traffic to the south of Dewsbury.

“At this stage we are only at the route option stage, so any reference made to lengths of new highway or upgraded highway are just suggestions.

“We will only know if preferred scheme includes new or upgraded highway or indeed a combination of both when we finish this piece of work.”

The council has long term plans to build more than 4,000 homes in the Ravensthorpe and Thornhill Lees area.

The first two applications for hundreds of homes off Lees Hall Road have already been approved.

It has said improving the road links and Ravensthorpe train station will be crucial.