CONCERNS about potential traffic problems created by a multi-million pound redevelopment of a historic estate could be resolved with a proposed new access road.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has approved ambitious plans for Kirkleatham Estate which includes the creation of a multi-million walled garden, catering and horticultural academy and events pavilion.

The £4.4m project received planning permission in the summer but members of the authority's regulatory committee raised a number of concerns about traffic problems.

Now the council is making a bid for extra funding to the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) for an new access road and has submitted a planning application.

The newly formed Kirkleatham Walled Garden Liaison Group has been informed about the proposal to plan the road link from the A174, off the ‘Fishponds’ roundabout.

Councillor Bob Norton, the council's cabinet member for economic growth, said that it was always the ambition of the council to create a new road as part of the wider estate plans, but funding had to be found.

He said: “The Kirkleatham Walled Garden Project has enormous potential to attract visitors from across the north and will benefit the whole borough. However, success brings its own problems and traffic must be considered. We will continue to inform and work with village residents and business owners, including the school, on these important issues.”

If the new road is approved and built it is expected to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and will create a new gateway in to the Kirkleatham estate so that visitors will not have to drive through the Kirkleatham village.

The local authority is hoping that a £2.7 million bid to the TVCA will soon be granted for the wider project to create the garden, catering academy and events pavilion. A £1.1 million grant from the Coastal Communities Fund has already been accepted.

The council expects that 40 direct jobs, 40 indirect jobs and more than 100 apprenticeships will be created at the Catering and Horticultural Academy.

The estate contains the Kirkleatham Museum and it’s expected that the new centre will bring at least 30,000 extra visitors a year to Kirkleatham and attract an additional £300,000 to the area.