A specialist assessment needs to be done before a pedestrian crossing can be considered for Staindrop, parish councillors have been told.
Earlier this month Staindrop Parish Council wrote to Lower Teesdale county representatives Cllr Jill Campbell and Cllr Jasmine Fox asking them to insist officers begin working on a plan for a safe crossing of the A688.
In response Cllr Campbell said she supports the village’s campaign and has been working with the county’s highways department as well as the parish council to achieve it.
She added: “I have to give weight to their professional advice which is, in essence, that the next step is for the parish council to obtain new survey data in the form of an approved PV2 assessment which hopefully will provide the data that supports the case for a crossing.”
Cllr Campbell said she had raised the issue with cabinet member Cllr Tim McGuinness.
His response was: “Our officers have been totally honest that they do not believe the criteria for a crossing would be met, but that can only be quantified via a survey.
“I can appreciate that members of the parish council and local residents may be frustrated by the situation. However, in this particular case, there are complications relating to minimum path widths and general footfall that make this difficult to achieve in the village.
“We are happy to work with the parish council going forward regarding other road safety improvements and to run the traffic survey.”
But parish councillors do not believe an assessment is necessary and claim a pedestrian crossing was installed at the GSK site in Barnard Castle without one.
In their statement to the county councillors the parish council said: “There is no reason technically, or in law, why a pedestrian crossing is not installed in Staindrop.
“Durham County Council (DCC) relies on the ‘PV2’ calculation to argue that there is no pedestrian ‘desire line’ with sufficient people crossing. This is wholly illogical given that a crossing creates the desire line.
“DCC has several policies which support the installation of a crossing, but chooses only to consider PV2.
“PV2 derives from national guidance but may consider local conditions and representations. There are many crossings in the county which would not satisfy a strict PV2 assessment.
“The Harmire Road crossing in Barnard Castle appears not to have had any PV2 assessment.”
