Spate of serious accidents renews calls for safety improvements on A1 in Northumberland
The issue's been discussed at a council meeting
Drivers travelling on the A1 are ‘taking their lives in their hands’ following a string of serious crashes, a councillor has claimed.
Berwick councillor Isabel Hunter said recent incidents on the notorious stretch of road showed the long-awaited dual carriageway project cannot be forgotten.
The Government scrapped plans to dual 13 miles of the road north of Morpeth, claiming the plans were unaffordable. But campaigners have long called for the improvements on both economic and safety grounds.
A crash near Berwick on January 28 resulted in the death of one woman and another left with serious injuries in hospital. At the start of February, a four-vehicle crash near Swarland saw two people hospitalised.
This week, a man was arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving after eight people were hospitalised following a head-on crash on the A1 south of Purdey Lodge.
Coun Isabel Hunter, who represents the Berwick West with Ord ward on Northumberland County Council, has long called for the road to be dualled right up to the Scottish border.
She said: “I recognise that some of these incidents could be driver error, but Government needs to do something about it. It needs to be looked at.
“We’re taking our lives into our hands when we’re going down that road. We need to keep the pressure on.
“The Government has said it will do minor improvements, but that won’t stop all of these crashes. We need to have the A1 dualled.
“How much of a price can you put on somebody’s life? It doesn’t have to be a fatality, some of the injuries can be life-changing.
“Yes, there will be large costs involved in dualling the A1. However, what value can you put on a person’s life and the distress caused to families?
“I ask please – can the Government reconsider the dualling of the A1 to the Scottish border and progress the scheme?
“We’re not even in the holiday season yet, which is from Easter onwards, when you start getting people who are strangers to the area and don’t know the roads.”
The Liberal Democrat councillor was also concerned that road closures push traffic onto smaller, unsuitable routes.
She added: “A recent accident closed the A1 again for several hours diverting vehicles of all sizes onto local roads which were not built to take the volume of the A1 traffic. The A1 continues to be closed on a regular basis, which is proof that it needs to be dualled all the way up to the Scottish border on safety grounds.
“You get wagons going onto small roads that aren’t designed for them. They aren’t suitable for articulated lorries to pass each other.”
The Labour Government scrapped the planned scheme to dual the road between Morpeth and Ellingham in 2024. The Department for Transport branded the project unaffordable and said costs had spiralled to more than £500 million.
The previous Conservative Government had given the upgrade the green light. However, the timing proved controversial, coming after the General Election was called and with the party languishing behind Labour in the polls.
Responding to Coun Hunter’s comments, a DfT spokeswoman said: “Our thoughts are with anyone who has been injured or impacted by accidents on this road.
“We had to make difficult decisions about a number of road projects which the previous Government had failed to fund, but National Highways is now exploring targeted solutions for this section of the A1 that could improve safety and congestion.”