A1 North dualling - Morpeth to Berwick

Kenny Patterson, from Berwick the campaigner behind a petition on Tony Blair's website demanding the A1 be upgraded was inspired to launch the online action after 1.7 million people signed another petition on the Downing Street website, protesting at plans for national congestion charging - and forced the Government on the defensive.

Mr Patterson is urging the North-East and other A1 users to support the petition for the A1 to be upgraded between Berwick and Morpeth.

Fergusons Transport is pleased to be supporting the campaign by sponsoring this website to give people an easy route to register their support.

Northumberland MPs Peter Atkinson and Alan Beith are among the people to have signed the online petition so far, along with Berwick Tory Parliamentary candidate Anne-Marie Trevelyan. Ronnie Campbell has also pledged his support, which means the petition has the support of all three political parties represented in the County. The petition has also been signed by the Duke of Northumberland, but more importantly by an increasing number of the concerned public.

Mr Patterson said: "This area needs to be noticed, at the moment no one in Government seems to care about the North of England, whether it be roads, health or education, he went on to say that ministers had never seen the road when it was "absolute pandemonium".

There is no point in the Government making promises we have heard before. What is required is for them to start the dualling now.

Mrs Trevelyan urged people to sign the petition, saying “This is an excellent opportunity for us all, on a cross-party basis, to make our voices heard”.

"A1 dualling has been on the agenda for decades. We have not seen any movement on this issue, and the death toll on this dangerous stretch of road continues to be unacceptable".

Alan Alan Ferguson chairman and owner of Fergusons Transport Ltd one of the largest hauliers in the northeast of England fully supports Kenny Patterson in his campaign to dual the A1 between Morpeth and Bewick.

Like Kenny, Alan has been using the A1 between Blyth to Berwick for many years and is fed up with the lack of anything being done to improve it - despite the "horrendous" number of deaths on the route, below is list some of Alan’s arguments for the upgrade.

There is a speed limit of 40mph on trucks on all single carriageway trunk roads
The road is used a lot by farm traffic
The recent attempts at safety markings on the road are adding to confusion about when you can pass.

All the above creates a road that is causing fatalities by frustrating drivers which leads to them taking unnecessary risks.
The road is the main link north to Edinburgh the capital of Scotland and as yet it remains a country lane!
It is a proven fact that investment in road infrastructure leads to economic development
The North East lags behind the rest of the country in GDP, this is a way of pump priming the local economy
When trying to sell the region to foreign investors it is difficult to impress them when we are not connected to other regions by motorway never mind dual carriageway! (I have personal experience in this from my many business trips to Japan etc.)
Car ownership is growing faster in the north than anywhere else in the country, so congestion is going to grow faster here than anywhere else
Car travel is the only viable means of transport for a rural county like Northumberland
The A1 gets congested at different times to other roads, which particularly effects tourists, an industry the region is becoming increasingly reliant upon eg. Sunday afternoons
The Scots have attached much more importance to the road infrastructure having nearly completed the dualling north of the border
The Barnett formula has long disadvantaged the region leading to long term under investment compared to our Scottish neighbours, a fact admitted by Lord Barnett himself. The dualling of the A1 would go towards rebalancing the investment levels.
We all pay far more in road tax than is spent on the roads – how about a little back?

Some of the arguments can just as easily be applied to the lack of a motorway south of Newcastle which we also support, but this campaign is no less valid.

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