HIGHWAY chiefs have called on the Government to issue urgent guidelines to clarify who is responsible for funding much-needed work to protect unsafe bridges over railway lines.

The appeal from Durham County Council comes ten months after the Selby crash, which highlighted serious deficiencies in barriers over bridges.

The authority, which has already installed steel crash barriers on the approaches to three bridges, is due to start work on Browney Lane bridge over the East Coast Main Line, near Durham.

The county council's head of design services, Burney Johnson, said: "The Browney Lane bridge is one which remains of particular concern and is, in our view, the financial responsibility of Railtrack.

"But we feel it is imperative that the work is done in the interest of public safety. We will carry out the work and address the issue of costs later.

"We would welcome some guidelines from the Department of Environment Transport and Regions to clarify just who is responsible for what."

A department spokesman said: "There is a report being prepared into the safety of railway bridges and that will be published in due course."

The perilous state of bridges along the East Coast Main Line was first highlighted by The Northern Echo in May. We visited 50 bridges between Newcastle and York and found the approaches to the majority to have woefully inadequate protection.

Meanwhile, the first civil action against builder Gary Hart, who was found guilty on Thursday of causing ten deaths by dangerous driving, has been launched at Leeds County Court by Giancarlo Spadone, 30, of York.