IMPROVEMENTS are to be made at a notorious accident blackspot.

Teesside's first fixed position speed camera is to be installed in a conspicuous position at a road junction that has claimed lives and been the scene of many serious injuries over the years.

The speed limit is also to be reduced on the approach to the junction of the Wynyard road with the A177 Durham road, opposite Thorpe Thewles, near Stockton, and improvements made to the carriageway.

Previous attempts to put a brake on speed and make the junction safer have failed.

Police say most of the collisions are cross-over crashes, caused by drivers coming out of the minor road and misjudging the speed of vehicles on the 70mph A177.

Stockton Borough Council road safety officer Neil Ellison said: "Despite having mobile speed cameras, we have seen, consistently, too many people driving well in excess of the speed limit and causing great danger - and that road does have a lengthy history of serious injury and fatalities.

"The junction improvements and the siting of the fixed speed camera are all means to tackle this problem once and for all," he said.

Brenda Allison, chairman of Grindon Parish Council, said: "We all felt something had to be done and will monitor what happens.

"Lots of people don't agree, they want different things - a roundabout, traffic lights - but we have to start somewhere. There have been too many accidents on that corner. Even local people have been caught on that crossing, which is astounding."

Inspector Mick Bennett of Cleveland Police traffic department, said: "I attended a fatal road traffic accident there last year. It is a very bad junction and the (Stockton) council has decided to reduce the speed limit and to cut speeds by paying for the installation of a fixed site camera.

"We fully support the council and will be only too happy to serve the cameras."

Mr Ellison said some roads monitored in a controversial fines-financed speed camera scheme, piloted on Teesside, will, be free of cameras from April.

"Several roads will drop off the scheme just because they don't have a problem anymore," he said.