EGGLESCLIFFE Parish Council has called on Stockton Council to hold a full public meeting about the controversial bus lanes leading to Yarm.

If this does not happen, the parish council will arrange a meeting itself, and ask the relevant road engineers, police officers and traffic consultants to attend it.

The decision was taken after 20 residents attended this month's parish council meeting to have their say about the lanes. None of them favoured the current system.

Many said they lived along Yarm Road, where the buses travel on designated green-painted lanes, and claimed they regularly experienced access difficulties.

The separation and merger of lanes, particularly at the entrance to Yarm, is often identified as the biggest problem. The system has been blamed for causing commuter road-rage and minor traffic accidents.

Last year, Stockton Council commissioned the White Young Green consultancy to review the lay-out and make some recommendations.

After the ten-month study, representatives of the firm attended an Egglescliffe council meeting earlier this summer and gave a presentation about their findings.

Consultant Steven Wells said statistics indicated the green lanes had alleviated some rush-hour problems, but blocked junctions, queue-jumping and commuter road-rage remained.

He said peak-time bus journeys were reduced by 4 mins and 3 mins at other times. Car journeys were cut by 30 seconds at peak-times.

Accidents had fallen and traffic speed had dropped by 9mph around Station Road, where speed cameras are positioned, and 1-2mph elsewhere on Yarm Road.

In addition, Mr Wells said morning and evening rush-hour traffic from and to Yarm had fallen. The so-called rat-run had been eliminated at Croft Road and halved at South View.

He suggested sequential traffic signals could improve traffic queues and solve the merger problem.

Despite the presentation, many councillors and residents felt local people were not properly consulted and called for more public talks.

Speaking to the D&S Times about this month's meeting, Egglescliffe clerk Helen Rennison said: "A lot of the residents' homes face Yarm Road. They told us there were many more incidents than those reported, and they had witnessed numerous near-misses and minor accidents themselves.

"They were also concerned the review was conducted before the opening of the new Ingleby Barwick road bridge. They felt it would be very useful to know what impact it was having on traffic-flow through Egglescliffe and Yarm."

She added: "Councillors emphasised they would hold a public meeting themselves, if Stockton Council refused to do so. The bus lane system and the recent review have caused a lot of controversy."