VILLAGERS are demanding that highway chiefs develop a solution for a road junction that has become an accident blackspot.

The central reservation on the A19 at the Black Swan Crossroads, near Hutton Rudby, was closed in July last year after four fatal accidents at the junction in five years.

The Highways Agency is now considering making the temporary closure a permanent measure after producing figures to show the move had cut accidents.

But villagers from East and West Rounton are calling for the gap in the barrier to be reopened, claiming that the closure has divided communities.

Colin Hinton, from Rountons Parish Council, said: "Local people now have to make a very big detour just to go to the dentist, doctors or shopping in Hutton Rudby and Stokesley.

"This is unfair - people are using smaller unsuitable roads and there are accidents, but nobody knows about them."

Derek Lawton, chairman of Rountons Parish Council, added: "I've crossed that junction twice a day for 25 years and never had a problem.

"The Black Swan pub closed because they lost business and functions in the village hall have been hit. The closure has caused a lot of hardship."

The villagers say if the central reservation is not reopened, a bridge should be built across the A19.

Officers from North Yorkshire County Council and the police support the permanent closure, but both also want a bridge built across the road.

Mike Moore, environmental services corporate director, said in a report to councillors: "The ideal solution would be the construction of an interchange with a bridge spanning the A19 at this location.

"I am aware of the concerns shared by local residents and parish councils on the closure of this crossover and the extra distance and time taken to cross from one side of the A19 to the other.

"The accident record so far appears to indicate that the closure of this central reserve gap at this location has resolved the accident problem without transferring the problem to other locations."

Residents will give their views to North Yorkshire County Council's county committee for Hambleton at County Hall, in Northallerton, on Monday at 2pm.

Councillors will then decide what recommendations to pass on to the Highways Agency.