Transport for London (TfL) is attempting to quietly drop a multi-million pound scheme to improve congestion on the A406 North Circular Road, Barnet Council claimed this week.

The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone postponed the £600 million plan to bring tunnels and flyovers to the traffic-choked Henlys Corner and to widen part of the North Circular around Bounds Green in 2004, but has never formally dropped the projects.

The Henlys Corner programme, which includes work to the Golders Green Road and Regents Park Road junctions, has already gone through two public inquiries, so attempts to officially bin the scheme would allow the council to object at a public hearing.

But a parliamentary bill to give TfL a range of new powers, which is currently making its way through the House of Commons, includes a clause which will allow it to revoke orders brought in by the Department for Transport (DfT). The DfT originally planned and approved the Henlys Corner project in the early Nineties, following two public inquiries. The scheme would be the only one to be affected by this new bill.

The council has sent a petition to TfL protesting against the move, it emerged this week. A council spokeswoman said: "The council believes a full public inquiry should be held before TfL considers revoking the orders, but this clause would allow revocation without even consulting residents. Until satisfactory schemes are developed to solve the congestion, pollution and rat-running associated with the A406, the council considers it vital to maintain the orders as they are.

"If a decision was made to fund the major schemes, the existing orders would allow them to be constructed quickly, rather than having to go through the full order-making process again."

Councillor Brian Coleman, Barnet's London Assembly member, said: "It is outrageous. The clause is put in by officers, and I am not sure Ken Livingstone even knows what is going on."

TfL said that it was in discussion with the council and would not comment further.