AN APPEAL for lighting at the busy A66 Cross Lanes junction near Barnard Castle has been rejected by the Highways Agency.

Teesdale District Accident Prevention Panel heard the agency considered that low accident numbers at the junction did not justify work being carried out.

A letter from the agency pointed out that there had been four injury accidents in the past three years and eight accidents in the past five years, with half taking place in darkness.

Due to the low accident numbers there are no proposals to make any further improvements, including the lighting requested by Teesdale district councillor Dreda Forster.

But she said that the panel's job was to prevent accidents, and that the Cross Lanes junction was an "appalling junction", especially in the dark and wet. "If we can stop accidents there, why can't we have it lit up?" she said.

Ken Saxby, of the Teesdale and Weardale Fell Rescue Team, said he had tried to turn off the A66 at that junction recently when a lorry came up behind him very quickly.

He said: "I was indicating to turn, but he had never seen the junction. This lighting business is something we really need. We have got to do something drastic."

Councillor Ken Hodgson felt it was another case where local people knew better, but were not listened to.