WORK on a £300,000 scheme to provide more pedestrian crossings in Darlington was completed yesterday.

The last crossing in the scheme was installed in Neasham Road as part of a project by Darlington Borough Council.

The £18,000 scheme was one of several crossings in the town to be improved. New ones have also been created.

Money for the work, which has been carried out over the past two months, has come from the council's Local Transport Plan.

The Government awarded the council £3.7m earlier this year for improvements to highways and public transport.

Plans were submitted in 2000 by all local authorities in England. They contained transport strategies for each area and programmes of measures to improve local transport from 2001 to 2006.

Measures in Darlington will include reducing congestion, promoting walking, cycling and road safety, and local road maintenance.

About £2.1m from the grant will be used to improve integrated transport in the borough. Schemes will include road safety initiatives, safer routes to schools, town centre access and bus improvements.

Other crossings in the town that have been upgraded since March include the junction at North Road and St Paul's Terrace, a scheme that cost £32,000.

The North Road and Lowson Street junction was also improved, with the upgrade of a Pelican crossing to a Puffin crossing, at a cost of £29,000.

The junction of Yarm Road and Hewitson Road has been enhanced to provide a Toucan crossing, which also caters for cyclists, in a £45,000 project.

Other schemes included £32,000-worth of work at the crossing near the Morrison's store in North Road, and the signals on the Hundens Lane crossing being upgraded at a cost of £96,000.

Two Puffin crossings have been installed at the junction of Yarm Road and St John's Crescent, and on Salters Lane North, at a cost of £21,000 and £23,000 respectively.

Councillor Nick Wallis, the council's cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "The work we have carried out on pedestrian crossings in recent weeks will greatly improve road safety for pedestrians and other road users."