A RAFT of proposals to improve safety on the notorious A66 across the Pennines have been given a tepid welcome in North Yorkshire.

Consultants, Maunsell Transport Planning, has spent much of the year consulting on possible solutions, which would make the road, one of the main arteries between the North-East and the North-West, safer to drive.

Public meetings have already been held in Darlington and Penrith and ideas to come out of both have been added to answers given to a widely-circulated questionnaire.

Short, medium and long-term solutions include more sections of dual carriageway, the re-alignment of some of the more dangerous bends, the addition of roundabouts at some junctions and improved signing along the entire stretch between Scotch Corner and the M6.

But both North Yorkshire County Council and Richmondshire District Council remain adamant that upgrading the road to dual carriageway is the only option.

When the deadline passed for comments on the most recent proposals, on Tuesday, among the replies was a submission by Councillor Michael Heseltine, who sits on both authorities.

"Anything other than a dual-carriageway is merely tinkering with the problem," he said.

"I can remember sitting on a committee at County Hall in the 1990s, predicting more people would die if nothing was done to improve the road and, sadly, they did."

Coun Heseltine's remarks also highlight the lack of rest stops for drivers who are crossing the Pennines.

He said: "Any driver travelling either from or to Scotch Corner and linking with the M6 will have to travel approximately 60 miles between service areas. This is against road safety."

Speed limits are also dismissed as "useless" if there are no means to enforce them. The consultant's attention is also drawn to the fact that traffic joining the road at either end is conditioned to motorway speed.

Coun Heseltine concludes: "The very mixture of types of traffic, together with the mixture of single and dual-carriageway, the mixture of road alignments, together with the mixture of standards of junctions and crossing points, make anything other than dualling only a relatively interim measure."