A POLITICAL row has broken out over how to tackle the traffic problems which creates the 'Marton crawl'.

The newly elected Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, Simon Clarke, is calling for political allegiances to be put to one side and resolve the longstanding issue.

And he has urged Middlesbrough Mayor Dave Budd and Middlesbrough Council to use the second half of 2017 to prepare a “comprehensive, detailed bid” for Government funding to tackle the issue.

With the Government’s new £1 billion a year fund to improve the Major Road Network due to open in 2018, Mr Clarke says that he has been told by the Roads Minister that bids from councils should ideally be in a range between £30 and £50 million – even to sort out the traffic bottle neck on the Marton and Stokesley Roads.

He said: "With the Swans Corner route for an East Middlesbrough bypass closed off, there is no silver bullet to resolve this problem. However, there are a number of what could be termed bronze bullets which, added together, would make an enormous difference.”

Mr Clarke will hold a residents’ survey this summer to ask south Middlesbrough residents how they think the problem can be tackled, and to gain evidence on how it is affecting their lives.

In a his letter to Mayor Budd he wrote: “I hope we can work on a cross-party basis for the good of the town to put together a really strong bid. I will be there to back a bid by Middlesbrough Council at every step of the way."

However, the letter was not well received by the local authority's cabinet member in charge of roads.

Cllr Lewis Young, Middlesbrough Council’s executive member for economic development and infrastructure, said: “The ‘Marton Crawl’ issue may be new to the newly elected MP but I can assure him it is not to the people of Middlesbrough and that is why our focus is on the actual doing rather than political posturing and headline chasing.

“It is also somewhat bemusing to see Mr Clarke ‘urge’ Middlesbrough Council to do the very things we set out to him as our plans a week previously.

“Middlesbrough Council has the political will and the expertise within its highways team to resolve this issue. Where Mr Clarke could be of great assistance to our bid is by giving the Government’s newly found Magic Money Tree another good shake the next time he is in Parliament.”

But now Mayor Budd says he will invite Mr Clarke to a meeting to discuss the issue in response to his letter.