CAMPAINGERS fear their concerns over road safety will not be taken seriously until there is a fatality, despite meetings with police and council officials.

Residents in Nunthorpe have spent months highlighting traffic problems in and around the village after a series of near misses and minor accidents.

And proposed changes to bus routes to and from the village has resulted in ward councillor Jon Rathmell calling on Middlesbrough Council to take action to resolve their concerns before it is too late.

He maintains the council's deputy mayor, Cllr Charlie Rooney, recently signed off and approved a bus service, which as part of its route will use the junction in Nunthorpe on Guisborough Road and The Avenue.

Concerns have been raised about pedestrian and road safety with Cllr Rooney.

A Middlesbrough Council spokesman said it has a statutory duty to ensure the safe movement of traffic and pedestrians and assured people they are taking residents' concerns seriously.

Cllr Rathmell said: "On January 18 a bus is going to be using the junction of The Avenue and Guisborough Road putting lives at risk and posing a danger to other road users and why? All because Cllr Rooney’s department do not see the concerns raised regarding public safety as a priority despite acknowledging it is a more dangerous junction.

"Many residents have also raised objection citing the same concerns and have lodged objections with Middlesbrough Council and the Mayor. I feel this issue is going to result in a fatality before the council takes any positive action."

Last year, members of the community met Cleveland Police and Middlesbrough Council to air their concerns and examine ways of resolving the issues surrounding speeding and the use of Guisborough Road as a 'rat-run'.

A council spokesman said: "The Council takes this responsibility very seriously and works closely with partner organisations, in particular Cleveland Police, in order to reduce both the number and severity of casualties occurring as a result of road traffic accidents.

"With unprecedented pressure on resources, it’s vital that those available to us are targeted as effectively as possible.

"The Council and its partners have therefore adopted a ‘data-led’ approach, using reliable sources of information such as vehicle speed and traffic volume surveys and recorded casualty data when allocating funding for road safety improvements.

"This approach has proved to be effective, as evidenced by a recent benchmarking exercise carried out by the North East Regional Road Safety Resource.

"This highlighted the fact that Middlesbrough is a consistently high performer in terms of casualty reduction across different user groups when compared with the other 150 highway authorities in England."