Representation by Ian Newton
- Date submitted
- 24 August 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
With regard to the consultation process of the upgrade to the A66 I wish to add my voice in support for the Blue option at the Cross Lanes and Rokeby junctions. The Black route at Rokeby is a very bad design that adds extra motoring time to anyone travelling from the east to Barnard Castle. Locals, and anybody in the know and probably those using satellite navigation systems will use the Cross Lanes junction instead. Almost half the route to Barnard Castle via Cross Lanes will be on the 70mph new dual carriageway and would clearly be the preferred route for most journeys that can use the County Bridge. This will result in extra traffic – I have read of estimates of 2 to 3 times extra traffic - on an already dangerous road. The road, (The Sills) in Startforth does not look to be capable of being widened for the extra traffic, but more importantly cannot be made safe with proper pavements for pedestrians. The section of the document “A66NTP Preliminary Design Consultation Sept 2021 Route Development Report Volume 1”, where it discusses the reasons for selecting the Black route in preference to the Blue route, makes its choice solely on the designation of a tiny piece of land deemed to be part of an historical landscape. Reading that document without that piece of information would lead one to presume that the Blue route would be preferable by nearly all the other criteria and certainly on balance would be the chosen design. The public need to be informed why this piece of historically designated land needs protecting rather than protecting pedestrians in Startforth. This land looks like any other field bounded on one side with a hedge with some trees within the hedge. The adjacent land was separated from the historical parkland when the existing road was upgraded in 1978, the damage to the park has already happened over 40 years ago.