Residents renew calls to improve A69 safety
BBCCalls for safety improvements on a busy road through a city centre have been renewed.
About 150 people attended a public meeting in Carlisle last week about the A69, which passes through the Warwick Bridge area of the city.
The meeting, organised by Liberal Democrat councillor Roger Dobson, heard calls for the road to undergo multiple safety improvements, including for it to be "de-trunked", and for HGV traffic to be cut.
National Highways said it continued to work closely with Cumberland Council on the concerns raised, and was reviewing potential measures to discourage lorries from using the route.
Dobson said the stretch of the A69 between Brampton and Junction 43 of the M6 had seen hundreds of crashes resulting in injuries over the past 25 years.
Department for Transport collision data shows 313 injury crashes, including nine fatalities, between 1999 and 2024.
The figures do not show a distinct increase, rather a consistent number along the route between Brampton and Junction 43 of the M6.
Andy Hopkins, who has worked as the lollipop man outside Warwick Bridge Primary School for several years, said he was knocked over by a van while helping children cross the road in 2022.
"I still have trouble when I'm standing for a particularly long time," he said.
Hopkins said he continued to witness dangerous driving, including motorists using mobile phones, adding improvements were long overdue.
Chris and Ann Stevenson, whose home sits beside the A69, were also among those attending the meeting.
Earlier this year, a lorry overturned and crashed into their property, damaging fences outside their home.
Stevenson said while the driver had been able to move on, they were still living with the consequences.
He said: "The unfortunate thing is he gets the wagon towed away, gets his insurance sorted, and we're left with all this."
'De-trunking is possible'
Dobson said he wanted National Highways to transfer responsibility for the road to Cumberland Council.
He said local control would make it easier to introduce lower speed limits, improve pedestrian crossings and tackle lorry traffic more effectively.
Dobson added he also wanted more freight vehicles to use the A689 via the Brampton bypass instead because it is a wider and straighter route with fewer pedestrians and residential areas alongside it.
National Highways said: "While we were unable to attend the public meeting on the A69, we continue to work closely with Cumberland Council on the issues raised and are reviewing potential measures to discourage HGVs from using the route through Warwick Bridge."
In a letter to Dobson, National Highways' chief operating officer Duncan Smith said the organisation was willing to explore de-trunking the A69 "as a special case", although changing the strategic road network was not currently a government priority.
He said discussions with Cumberland Council were continuing and that any measures to reduce lorry traffic would need to take account of the impact on surrounding local roads.
Dobson added that residents had spent years raising concerns about the route and now wanted to see discussions lead to practical safety improvements.
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