AN ADVOCATE of safer routes to school is being challenged to walk the route from Neasham to Hurworth.

The gauntlet is being thrown down by parish councillors who are fed up with Darlington Borough Council dragging its feet over putting in a footpath between the villages.

In November, Darlington's then mayor, Coun Bill Dixon, visited the parish council and echoed its fears for the safety of walkers using a stretch of the popular Teesdale Way.

For years, residents in both villages have called for the resurrection of an old footpath linking the two.

Coun Dixon said he would throw his weight behind the campaign to have a hedge moved back and a footpath created along the side of the grass verge.

A senior engineer went out to speak to councillors but the villagers are still waiting for the promised road safety measure.

However, the borough is spending an extra £73,000 on traffic control measures around its urban schools in addition to £170,000 on the safer routes programme, which includes "walking trains".

Coun Nick Wallis, who has stressed that road safety is a priority, has been asked to walk with children from Neasham to Hurworth primary school and experience the problems.

The chairman of Neasham Parish Council, Coun John Weighell, told Monday's meeting he had been approached by mothers whose children wanted to join in the current National Walk to School Week.

"There is unbelievable congestion at Hurworth school so that parents who drive can't get very close anyway. A lot of mothers would love to walk their children to school."

Borough Coun Peter Foster suggested writing to Coun Wallis, pointing out the council had yet to provide a footpath.

"We will write and suggest a couple of councillors walk the road with the children the way they do in Darlington," agreed Coun Weighell.

Coun Wallis told the D&S Times the Safer Routes scheme was centred on areas where they could benefit as many children as possible and where accidents and injuries had been highest. Most children in Neasham would not walk to school anyway, they would go by car or bus