A66 safety campaigners' call to reduce speed at country's 'worst junction'

A “NIGHTMARE” junction on the A66 has led an action group to try to prevent more deaths on the single carriageway stretch.

Residents in Ravensworth have banded together to get highways authorities to cut speed on the two-mile section of the trans-Pennine route between Black Hill and West Layton and make the New Lane junction to the village safer.

There have been three serious incidents on the section since July – the most recent of which saw a 77-year-old man lose his life in November at the West Layton junction.

Some motorists have even resorted to avoiding the New Lane junction altogether – adding several miles to their journeys. Chairman of Ravensworth Parish Council Ken Bell, and villager Malcolm Burgess have led the A66 action group in trying to get Highways England and North Yorkshire Police to act before the arterial route is dualled some time between 2020 and 2025.

Mr Burgess said: “They are going to dual the road – that’s all well and good, but in the meantime how many fatalities and serious accidents are there going to be? The cost to the state is in excess of £1million for a fatal accident – how much is it going to cost for a speed limit?”

Improved layouts, reduced speed limits and average speed cameras, similar to those in place on the A66 in Cumbria, have been touted as solutions by the group.

However, efforts to get a 40mph limit on the road have been rejected by Highways England as the road is not deemed to meet the required criteria. Mr Bell has helped prepare a 24-page dossier of evidence and information about the stretch to convince officials to take action.

He said: “Speed awareness courses are about reaction times and this comes into play on this sort of road.

“If there is a reduced speed limit as an interim measure, and we hopefully get a better junction in two or three years, it would make it safer. It’s a sensible interim measure.”

Transport secretary Chris Grayling promised there would be no backsliding on making the entire A66 dual carriageway while he was out on the campaign trail in Barnard Castle last year.

But dale folk fear more serious injuries and deaths before the work starts.

Highways England has earmarked a fresh layout for the New Lane junction from the A66 to Ravensworth but consultations and funding may mean it could take another two or three years before any adjustments are made.

Villager Carol Robinson said the junction was an “absolute nightmare” at the moment.

“I’d travel from Barnard Castle to come home on a night and in the dark you just cannot see it,” she added.

“Many a time you are just a sitting duck – the lorries do not stick to their side of the road and it’s far too fast. It must be the worst junction in the country.”

Ravensworth’s Enid Wilson agreed. She said: “It’s absolutely terrible. I drive as far as Inverness and I am not a scaredy driver but turning out of that road end is just hell.”

The group met Julia Mulligan, North Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, to discuss its concerns last year.

A spokesperson for the commissioner said the commissioner was supportive of the campaign and would

be speaking to North Yorkshire Police and other involved partners about the road.

Mr Bell said the action group’s formation and aims had already struck a chord with Ravensworth residents and surrounding villages alike.

“The community is at the end of its tether on this – we want to see something happening,” he said.