TRAFFIC restrictions surrounding a major open air night show will be eased after highways chiefs followed councillor’s recommendations.

Members of Durham County Council’s highways committee described road and footpath closures set up to manage traffic to and from Kynren in Bishop Auckland as excessive and unfair when they met last week.

Last summer, up to 8,000 people turned out to watch the historic spectacle on Friday and Saturday nights.

An experimental traffic regulation order was put in place and the committee was considering whether it should be made permanent. Highways officers had recommended the committee endorse the order in its current form, including closing nearby footpaths from 4pm to midnight on show nights.

However, residents said this was too early as the show does not start until 8pm at the earliest. Objections were also raised to the closing of a rural road between Bishop Auckland Market Place to Newfield from 6pm to midnight.

Many councillors were sympathetic to these views and recommended the corporate director, with whom the final decision lay, establish a less restrictive order.

Yesterday, Dave Wafer, the council’s strategic traffic manager, said: “Following the last meeting of the highways committee, we have now made the decision to ease restrictions around the Kynren site on event days. Footpaths will now shut at 6pm instead of 4pm and the rural road from Bishop Auckland Market Place to Newfield will remain open.”