Residents demand A1 dualling due to summer traffic

People living near the A1 have renewed calls for it to be dualled after bank holiday traffic led to major delays.

Drivers were stuck in long queues from where the road becomes a single carriageway in Northumberland.

Trudy Long, owner of Carr's Corner village shop in Longframlington, said she knows not to go anywhere on a bank holiday "because of the traffic".

The government scrapped plans to dual 13 miles (20.9km) of the A1 north of Ellington in October 2024 after deciding it was poor value for money, instead National Highways has committed to improving junctions along the single carriageway sections.

Long said: "The A1 does need to be dualled - just look at the accidents that have happened last week.

"I'm 55 years old and I think they've been saying they were going to dual it since I was born."

Thomas Fox, one of the workers in Carr's Corner, said large wagons coming through the village "is a daily thing".

"Sometimes the worst offenders are cars, you have the ones that don't know the road who stick to 30mph and the ones who do are trying to overtake them," he said.

"The A1 near Morpeth in particular needs to be dualled."

Conservative councillor Guy Renner-Thompson, who represents the Bamburgh ward on Northumberland County Council, said he had never seen the likes of Beadnell and Bamburgh beaches so busy as last weekend.

"The A1 was mental with people waiting 30 to 40 minutes to get out of some junctions," he said.

"The government needs to recognise how busy it can get here and reverse the decision and dual the A1."

Longframlington butcher Mick Munro said when the A1 is busy all the traffic comes through the village.

"It's dangerous for people crossing the road, it's definitely got worse in recent years," he said.

"There's more and more traffic on the road."

The total cost of the scheme to dual the road was put at over £500 million, which the government said was poor value for money.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "Given the challenging financial picture the government inherited, we had to make difficult decisions about a number of road projects which the previous government had failed to fund."

They added National Highways was "exploring solutions" to improve safety and congestion on the route.

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