I WAS intrigued by your item on page six of Saturday’s edition: “PCC pledges to fix diversion problem”.

While sympathising with Croft and Hurworth residents, the people of Staindrop, and especially Barnard Castle, know all about this.

They have been suffering this traffic for a lot longer as the Highways Agency also used this official overnight diversion route while major work was done on the Yorkshire section of the A66 through the summer of 2013. We’ve had “temporary” diversion signs sand-bagged on the pavements for three years already.

The route takes traffic over the listed single track Abbey Bridge and then through the medieval centre of Barnard Castle, where the Grade One listed Market Cross acts as a roundabout.

Here they have to make a right-angled turn where the roadway is barely wider than the juggernauts negotiating it. The Market Cross, built 1747, has had chunks taken out of it on countless times and trucks routinely mount the narrow pavement.

So, if Ron Hogg is successful in fixing the problem, Hurworth and Croft’s gain will be Barney and Staindrop’s loss, and there are many more people living adjacent to the traffic in these communities than there are on the A167.

For the last six months I’ve been trying to get answers from Andrew Jones, the Roads Minister, about the risk assessments his agency (now Highways England) undertook on the diversion route, and whether they considered diverting northbound traffic through Melsonby and southbound through Middleton Tyas instead of the much longer Barnard Castle route, but despite having two “replies” so far, I’ve had no answers. My third letter is with him now.

If it’s any consolation to Croft and Hurworth residents, their problem should cease next year when the A1(M) work is finished, but Barney will still suffer every time there is a closure on the A66 west of Scotch Corner.

Phil Hunt, Richmond