Highway England have paused a controversial project on the A69 in Northumberland.

The ‘controversial project’ was part of an upgrade scheme to make the A69 safer and faster to use.

Plans for the upgrade scheme were to have work carried at the roundabouts at Bridge End and Styford near Corbridge.

The plans and designs for the two roundabouts were then sent out to the public for consultation.

The plan for the Bridge End project received some positive feedback from the public, to which Highways England ‘listened’ to residents views and work started on earlier this year.

On the other hand, the work proposed to do on the Styford followed a backlash from local residents.

Therefore an initial response by Highway England was to pause but not rule out the project on the Styford in the future.

This recommendation was then agreed by the Department of Transport.

National Highways Regional Director Simon Boyle said: “The proposals for the A69 at Corbridge were not popular with local communities and we received a number of objections.

“For this reason we recommended that this improvement should not go ahead to the Department for Transport, which accepted our recommendation earlier this year.”

Work began on the Bridge End roundabout started in October 2019 and is to finish in January 2022.

Although plans have been paused for the Styford roundabout, Highway England are still encouraging the public to provide feedback on where they think future investment is needed.

Concerned public are to fill an online form out on the Highway England website by Tuesday November 30.

A spokesperson for Highway England said: “We would encourage anyone with a view on where future investment is needed on the strategic road network to provide their feedback via our online route strategy consultation which ends on Tuesday, November 30.

“The information people provide will be used to inform the Government’s decisions on future road investment so this provides local people with a real opportunity to shape the long term future of our roads.”