The A64 is to become safer at last. A year after the Evening Press launched our Close the Gaps campaign, the most notorious gap in the central reservation, at Colton Lane End, is to close.

This is a victory for people power. Our campaign has received huge support. Hundreds of readers returned coupons and wrote letters backing our stand.

Figures of authority, from councillors to Ryedale coroner Michael Oakley, called for the gaps to be closed. The police today called it a "common sense" move. It will help ease the anxiety of parents whose children travel along this stretch of road to school.

We began the campaign after two people were killed in accidents involving vehicles passing through the gap. The Highways Agency soon responded to the public concern highlighted by the Evening Press. But its plan to close off the Colton Lane End turning point looked likely to be scuppered by just 17 objections.

These brought about the prospect of a full public inquiry. That would have delayed action for a year or more.

But the Highways Agency has responded with a canny manoeuvre. By announcing a temporary closure of the gap for up to 12 months, it has avoided the issue of a public inquiry.

Meanwhile, the agency can reassure the handful of unhappy residents that it will assess the impact on local motorists who are forced to take a detour. And it can examine whether the closure will make a difference to safety on other roads.

Most importantly, however, the move means the gap is closed immediately.

Anyone who is a regular traveller along the A64 has horror stories to tell of near misses involving this junction. For every day that the gap remained open, the odds shortened of another serious accident. The cost of waiting for the outcome of a public inquiry could well have been counted in human lives.

Motorists who have been inconvenienced by the closure should not be forgotten. Their grievances need to be reassessed and assistance offered.

But the change will help many more motorists than it will hinder. We are confident that the A64 will be a measurably safer place on which to drive after the gap is closed. If that is confirmed, then this 12-month experiment should be made permanent.

Now we need to address the other danger spots on this road. Efforts must continue both to close the central reservation gap at Bilbrough Top and to provide a long-term replacement to the traffic lights at the junction with Copmanthorpe.

see NEWS 'We've won A64 death gap fight'

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