Allen's West & Urlay Nook Road Update

Stockton Council's engineers asked the people applying to develop these two sites to calculate the effect of not only their own traffic but each other's, especially on the roundabout near Tesco. Those calculations are done using standard computer programmes that are accepted right across the country and it's very difficult to argue to a Planning Inspector on appeal that they are wrong, even when local knowledge suggests strongly that they are.
The calculations have shown that the approach to the roundabout would need to be modified to accommodate the extra traffic. A senior council officer has described the proposal thus:
Both developers have combined a proposal for an improvement scheme on the Tesco roundabout to mitigate their impact from development. In summary, the improvement scheme includes local widening to the approaches on the Durham Lane and two A67 legs of the roundabout. This will allow two formal lanes for traffic queue and therefore more traffic through the roundabout more efficiently. There is of course a complication to this, as we are aware the wider highway network (Yarm High St) is the bottle neck. Under the legislation, the developer must mitigate their own impact on the affected junctions and existing problems on the wider highway network remain the responsibility of the Authority.
We know that car drivers now tend to form two lanes close to the roundabout but the width of the road from the north and the west indicates that this can't happen, hence the requirement for widening. What this means is that if the planning applications are approved on July 2nd these changes to the roads will go ahead without any further consultation, so as ward councillors we're busy trying to consult with the people who live nearest to the roundabout to see what their views are. Street letters will go out in the next few days as well as an email news. If readers know anyone who might be affected please let us know.