Hopes study will force A1 dualling reassessment

North East political figures hope the government will be forced to reassess dualling the A1, saying a new study had identified additional economic benefits.

There have long been calls for the single carriageway stretch in Northumberland to be upgraded but it has been reignited following the deaths of eight people this year.

Northumberland County Council said it commissioned research which suggested the dualling scheme would deliver more than £200m in benefits than previously anticipated.

The government scrapped a previous dualling scheme due to spiralling costs, but the Department for Transport (DfT) said it was "continuing to engage with relevant stakeholders" on the issue.

Seven of the people killed had died on the stretch between Morpeth and Ellingham, where the previous dualling scheme was dropped.

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said: "It just needs to be done. It is time we were listened to as a region.

"I think this is out of sight, out of mind for an overly centralised government," the Labour mayor said.

The Conservative-led council argued smoother journeys would reduce "driver frustration", which could be converted to monetary value as people avoided stressful roads.

However, it said it could not yet release a copy of the actual study.

The council's head of strategic transport, Stuart McNaughton, led the research into the economic benefits.

He based additional assessments on work carried out in the project to dual the A9 in Scotland.

"They looked at drivers' frustration - people got stuck behind a HGV and that leads to people making mistakes or people just saying they're not going to make that journey - that has an economic cost.

"They persuaded the Scottish government to factor that in when the business case came in and the A9 is being dualled."

County council leader Glen Sanderson said the A1 had seen more traffic in recent years, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"Every death is a tragedy. We have had more this year than in the previous nine," he said.

"We're now using the monetary argument and at the end of the day I believe what we have now is indisputable."

A DfT spokesperson said National Highways were working on solutions for the stretch of road that "could improve safety and congestion as part of the third Road Investment Strategy".

It added there were no current plans to dual the A1 through Northumberland.

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