IN a bid to reduce costs a North-East council has created a new unit to tackle problems on two busy dual carriageways.

The 24-hour Incident Response Unit, formed by Middlesbrough Council, will reduce traffic management costs in the town by £45,000.

The team will now provide incident response on the A172 link road and the 6km section of A66 within the Middlesbrough boundary and will incorporate a daily inspection to identify emergency defects and carry out debris removal.

The service was previously provided by a private contractor at an annual cost of £45,000.

Councillor Nicky Walker, council’s executive member for environment, said: “The most important aspect of developing this facility is that we are able to make a real saving while maintaining a public service.

“Credit must go to the Streetscene Service staff who have completed this training and gained the necessary qualifications to allow us to put it into practice.”