Consultants examining the future of the country's roads will recommend the widening of part of the M1 and the M62 south of Leeds in the latest of a series of regional reports.

But they will also call for drivers to pay tolls in future to reduce pressure on the network in the document published on Thursday.

Important investment to improve public transport and people's transport choices are being undermined by the return of the road building dinosaurs

Paul Hamblin CPRE

A total of 35 studies around the country are considering how to cut traffic jams and improve public transport while assessing the impact on businesses and the environment.

Consultants examining the stretches of the two motorways south of Leeds are to recommend widening the roads.

But environmentalists fear that adding extra lanes to motorways and building new roads will irrevocably damage the countryside.

The Council for the Protection of Rural England is disappointed with the studies which it says were supposed to "signal a new approach to tackling transport problems."

Paul Hamblin, head of transport policy, said: "Important investment to improve public transport and people's transport choices are being undermined by the return of the road building dinosaurs."

'Controversial'

The government says public transport must be improved alongside any other plans to cut congestion.

And it has also ruled out road tolls for at least the next eight years.

The studies will be discussed by regional planning bodies before going to Transport Secretary Alistair Darling for a decision.

Announcements have already been made on three of the studies, including the rejection last year of controversial plans for a by-pass in Hastings, in East Sussex.