HGV campaigners in Barnard Castle are hoping to enter talks with a North Yorkshire town which got its bypass after years of fighting.
While the route of a potential Barney relief road is being safeguarded, highways chiefs admit it depends on funding being available in years to come. They have also suggested an interim ban on HGVs in the town centre would be “costly and bureaucratic” and deter less than ten per cent of vehicles.
Barnard Castle HGV Action Group, which wants to reduce the amount of heavy traffic to protect historic buildings such as the Market Cross, is hoping a change in tack will break the deadlock.
In giving an update to town councillors, Cllr Judi Sutherland revealed that the group hoped to start talks with campaigners in Bedale, which got a £34million bypass in 2016.
She said: “We are pushing for a relief road but we will have to come up with a pot of money somewhere. We need someone who understands how to get money from the government.”
Cllr Sutherland said campaigners in Bedale are happy to discuss how the town went about its fight.
She added that the group was looking at how to use the results of an unofficial survey members carried out this spring.
One possibility was to speak to haulage companies to find out why some of the lorries were going through town.
Members also took two photos of lorries driving over the pavement near the Market Cross. It comes after police confirmed a law from 1835 making this illegal was still enforceable.
Barnard Castle HGV Action Group was also hoping environmental officials would carry out air quality readings to gauge the level of air pollution.
Cllr Sutherland said: “We know [Durham County Council] the highways department have got no plans to do anything. It seems to me that Cumbria and North Yorkshire are more amenable to doing things for the community that County Durham highways [department] is.”
Cllr Ian Kirkbride replied: “It will take a casualty. I am not saying we want one but that’s what it will take.”
However, the meeting heard that Durham County Council has agreed to move the traffic lights back on the north side of Egglestone Abbey bridge so lorries don’t pass each other at the narrowest part of the road. A date for this to happen has not yet been set.
