Councillor calls for A69 dual carriageway change over crashes

A single carriageway section of the A69 should be widened after seeing almost 200 crashes in the last four years, a councillor has said.

Six people have died and 191 crashes have happened on the 32 miles (51km) between Hexham and Carlisle since 2019.

Ian Hutchinson, the Conservative councillor for Haltwhistle said he had been "fighting" for years for it to become a dual carriageway.

The Department for Transport has declined to comment.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said that in comparison, two single-carriageway sections of the A1 in Northumberland had seen 62 fewer crashes across the same period.

The figures were obtained via Freedom of Information requests to Northumbria Police and Cumbria Constabulary.

A decision on creating a dual carriageway section on a 13-mile (20km) stretch of the A1 between Morpeth and Alnwick, Northumberland, has been delayed until September 2023.

Plans to do the same on the A69 were mothballed in 2016, with a section of the A66 between Penrith and Scotch Corner undergoing the work instead.

It was agreed at the time that a change to the A69 would cut journey times by around double that of the A66 project, but it was deemed too expensive.

Mr Hutchinson said the change was "still on the cards to be done, but I don't think it will be in my lifetime".

"There's just not the money to do it," he said.

"It looked like it was going to be done, but they favoured the A66, which was total madness because it is closed in the winter and in high winds."

He said the junctions at Haltwhistle and Haydon Bridge were "badly designed", adding: "I'm fighting all the time for it."

Guy Opperman, the Conservative MP for Hexham, said he also supported the change.

"Upgrading, improving and ultimately dualling more of the A69 is vital to Tynedale's economy and will improve safety for the tens of thousands of cars who use the road every day," he said.

Ben Dobson, a spokesman for National Highways, said it would "always take on board feedback regarding our schemes".

He said officials had met with the councillor "to discuss safety at junctions along the A69 single carriageway, as well as the potential for dualling in the future".

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