A QUICKER, cheaper and cleaner solution to road safety problems on the A66 trans-Pennine route could have been found, environmentalists have said.

Transport 2000, which campaigns to reduce the environmental impact of road traffic, claims the £140m scheme to dual the 50-mile road from Scotch Corner to Penrith will damage important habitats and landscapes.

The upgrade was announced last week by the government following a second safety survey of the road, which has claimed more than 70 lives in the last ten years.

The news was welcomed by the A66 Completion Group and others who have campaigned for full dualling of the route.

However, Transport 2000 said more modest changes, which could have been implemented more quickly and cheaply, would have brought about the same reduction in accidents.

Its spokesman, Steve Hounsham, said: "Our solution would have been a number of small-scale changes at troublesome points such as junctions and better speed management to try to prevent people putting their foot down.

"We would also have supported a concerted effort to get freight off the road and onto the rail. There is an established rail freight route between the North-East and North-West and it is certainly not pie in the sky to talk about how we could get a lot of lorries off the A66."

The proposed dual carriageway would damage the Eden Valley Site of Special Scientific Interest, at the Cumbrian end of the route, and come right up to the edge of the Lake District National Park.

"The other major impact will be on the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty," said Mr Hounsham. "There are also general environmental issues such as if you improve a road in this way, you end up with even more traffic. The long-term result will be more traffic crossing the Pennines, causing more pollution and damaging the very special environment."

Transport 2000 recognised that there was a safety problem with the road and was as concerned as anyone about it.

"Where we differ is that we think a much cheaper, quicker and simpler series of improvements would be the solution," he said.

Stephen Joseph, director of Transport 2000, feared the A66 decision would open the floodgates for a massive road-building programme across the UK.

"If the government repeats this decision elsewhere, we could see a vast new road-building programme with most motorways widened to eight, ten or even 12 lanes and a lot of other new roads across Britain's countryside," he said.

Cumbria Transport 2000 representative Jane Parsler claimed the safety study had been biased.

She said the damage to the Eden Valley, which is a candidate for designation as a European Special Area of Conservation, would be devastating to wildlife and the landscape.

Those who campaigned for dualling said Transport 2000's proposed solutions would have done nothing to tackle the problem of frequent changes from dual to single carriageway, which have been blamed for many of the accidents.

They were keen to see work start as soon as possible.

Steve Rankin, north-east regional director of the Confederation of British Industries, said: "This decision has to be applauded and is extremely important for the whole north-east economy."

Len Cruddas, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce chief executive, said the scheme would help anyone wanting to transport goods to markets in western England and Scotland.

However, he urged officials to look as "the bigger picture" and improve other transport links, including rail.

* Just 24 hours after transport minister John Spellar announced the upgrade to the A66, the road saw another accident.

Five people were injured, none of them seriously, when a red Vauxhall Nova and a blue Ford Escort collided at the Melsonby crossroads, about 1.5 miles from Scotch Corner, last Friday morning.

An elderly man in the Nova was treated by paramedics before being taken to Darlington memorial hospital for checks. A man, woman and two children in the Escort were treated for cuts, bruises and shock.