Town Council expresses concern as roadwork disruption will continue over Christmas and beyond

Cramlington Town council has expressed concern over warnings by Northumberland County Council of further delays and disruption resulting from major roadworks on Crowhall Lane and Station Road in Cramlington.

Roadworks have been in operation for months already causing major disruption, but now plans have been disclosed showing even more delays on a scheme in Northumberland’s second biggest town.

From approximately 21st November a new phase of works will begin which will mean that residents of Nelson Village and the new housing development at St Nicholas Manor will have to exit Northbound onto Crow Hall Lane from a currently closed exit.

This will result in a significant diversion of residents around the outskirts of the town to access the centre of the town by car.

The private contractors doing the work have also indicated that they will cease work over Christmas despite being 2 months behind schedule.

Early in the New Year (indicated to be around the 9th Jan) the existing roundabout (Crow Hall Lane and Westmorland Way) will be shut to traffic again causing more disruption and even greater diversions around the town for residents.

Once this stage is done, later in 2023 the East West entry to this roundabout will close for the completion of the work. This will include increasing the size of the existing roundabout on Station Road.

This will lead to further disruption.

Cllr Mark Swinburn (pictured), Cramlingon Village County and Town Councillor who has been campaigning with other Cramlington Councillors to get road improvements in place said “As part of the new housing development which is now completed, private contractors commissioned by Persimmon and Bellway were required to put in a roundabout to help manage the flow of cars from around 500 new homes. It is quite unbelievable that they were allowed to wait till the last minute to do the scheme and for it to be behind schedule by 2 months and impacting on thousands of our residents into possibly mid 2023 as well as delaying further improvement work now waiting to be carried out in the area”

“As a town council we are calling on the contractors to increase their working times to 6 days a week in order to try to catch up on their failure to deliver the works on time. We are also calling on them to bring their plans for mass diversions around the town and genuine timescales to a public showcase at Manor Walks so they can explain to our residents how this has happened”

The contractors have explained that delays been caused in part by a number of unidentified services in the ground that were missed by the surveys undertaken, and this has resulted in a need for further work and a design change to the affected area.

Cramlington Town Council is requesting what powers the County Council has to get compensation for the delayed scheme and also urging the Council to request increased working times and for the Christmas shut down to be shortened to catch up on the delays.