Neighbours at a new housing estate say they have been cut off from the rest of the community as they have no safe way of crossing the road.
Homeowners on the Fairways development in Cramlington, which is being built by a partnership of Bellway Homes and Persimmon, say the only access onto their estate is via Fisher Lane, where everyone - including older people and schoolchildren - is expected to cross a busy 50mph road to access the bus stop.
There are also no pedestrian or bike access to local services except a stretch of road they must walk along for a third of a mile without any footpath, as cars speed by. They then have to cross the A1068 to reach the footpath and cycle network at Northumberlandia, where the speed limit is 70mph.
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A total of 292 residents have signed a petition requesting "immediate action to prevent injury or loss of life" and claimed there is inadequate infrastructure to the growing development, where there are already 300 occupied homes. The council has said the developers are obligated to put in associated infrastructure via a Section 106 agreement that was part of the planning process - however, this only comes into play when a certain number of homes has been built, and that threshold has not yet been reached.
Northumberland County Council has now agreed to build a footpath across a piece of land it owns that will give families safe access to Cramlington town centre. However, officers were keen to stress that this would need to be funded, as would other road safety measures suggested by members at Thursday's meeting of the council's petitions committee.
Petitioner Julia Dowd reacted angrily - speaking at the meeting, she said: "We pay council tax and we don't get anything from Cramlington Town Council - we get nothing.
"When we talk about cost, what is the cost you put on someone's life?"
Coun Barry Flux, who represents the Fairways estate as part of his Cramlington West ward, said the work to build the footpath needed to begin as soon as possible.
He said: "We should be out there already as far as I'm concerned. This should happen as soon as possible.
"If it needs to be signed off and put forward, can we just do it. We own the land, we can do it, we should do it."
The committee's chairman, Coun Richard Dodd, assured Mrs Dowd and others that he would work to ensure the work was done. He said the project would return to the committee's next meeting so that a progress update could be provided.
Coun Dodd said: "I understand your frustrations. We will do our best. We will try to get this nudged on, we will get traffic lights investigated and if the developer is willing to do deals we will draw down on that.
"We are looking into this problem. I want it resolved."
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