VITAL road improvement schemes are being stalled by convoluted planning procedures, it was claimed last night.

The Road Users Alliance (RUA) said of six major road projects in the North-East, which were included in local authority transport plans as long as ago as 2000, only two had been completed.

It said the total costs of the schemes had also spiralled by more than £20m to almost £80m.

Two schemes - the Darlington Eastern Transport Corridor plan, linking Haughton Road and the A66, and the A688 Wheatley Hill-Bowburn link road, in County Durham - had yet to get off the starting blocks.

Work on the dualling of the Scotswood Road, in Newcastle, and the Sunderland Southern Radial Route, connecting the city centre with the A19, started recently. The two schemes from 2000 that were completed were the dualling of the A689 Sedgefield to Wynyard road and the A167 Chilton Bypass, both in County Durham.

RUA director Tim Green said planning procedures needed to be streamlined to speed up road improvements.

The organisation represents firms involved in road construction and maintenance and organisations representing business and private road users.

Mr Green said: "We have to cut the red tape that is choking progress and increasing costs."

Maggie Pavlou, president of the North-East Chamber of Commerce, which wants improved road transport links in order to boost business productivity, said: "The Road Users Alliance has highlighted a significant problem facing the North-East.

"A raft of schemes have been identified as priorities - some as long ago as 15 years - but have yet to get started.

"This illustrates that getting Government backing for a scheme is only the first hurdle, getting them to deliver on their promises without delay is far more difficult."

Road schemes are split into those managed by local authorities, for which central Government allocates funds under approved Local Transport Plans, and those managed by the Highways Agency - schemes of a strategic, national importance, such as those on trunk roads and motorways.

Earlier this year, the Liberal Democrats called on the National Audit Office to look into the soaring cost of several road schemes in the North-East, including some of those cited by the RUA.

David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, will tell the organisation's annual conference on London today: "Key projects are being put back by years on end due to serious delays in the planning system.

"It is simply not acceptable that businesses are forced to suffer as a result of endless red tape and delays caused by local authorities up and down the UK."