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IT IS, of course, good news that work will start later this year on the upgrading work to convert the dual carriageway A1 in North Yorkshire into a three-lane motorway.

But Transport Minister Ruth Kelly's announcement in Durham on Monday smacked of self-congratulation when that was hardly appropriate.

The tone - "job done, the North-East gets its motorway link" - was designed to make the best of what has been bad job. Closer examination of the wording shows a degree of continuing prevarication which is most unwelcome.

Work will start in the autumn, certainly, but not on the whole length of the remaining dual carriageway road. Only the section between Dishforth and Leeming Bar will be completed in a first stage of the project. The second section, between Leeming and Barton, will not be started until 2011 at the earliest and that, in turn, means the North-East will probably not get its link to the national motorway network for at least five years.

It also means a protracted period of construction which will inevitably mean more delays and, because of the poor safety record of the non-motorway stretch of the road, more deaths and injuries.

The region has been poorly treated with the planning of this project, which has been going backwards and forwards since 1996. Most recently, the delay of more than a year while the inspector's report sat on the minister's desk has not been explained. It is clear the inquiry did not throw up any substantial issues about the route, so this remains a mystery.

Now the region has to remain watchful over the Government's commitment to the 2011 start date for the Leeming to Barton section. There plenty of scope for what the bureaucrats like to call "slippage in the programme". Any more slippage means more lives lost and more damage to the economy of the region.

2:54pm Friday 4th April 2008

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