Controversial plans for city toll road are shelved

Durham City made history in 2002 when Britain’s first toll road in modern times was opened on the way to the World Heritage Site formed by Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle.

The scheme has been hailed a success, reducing vehicles visiting the sensitive area and improving safety for pedestrians.

But over the past three years, Durham County Council has looked at also charging drivers to use the busy east-west A690 route.

The scheme would have been allied to the construction of a road running from the Belmont area to Aykley Heads or Pity Me.

The road could have run through fields close to Crook Hall, the city’s medieval manor house and gardens, which is visited by thousands each year.

The Labour-run council won Government funding for a study into the idea, but council leader Simon Henig said it was now off the agenda “in the short to medium term”.

“I don’t know how traffic will develop – we could be sat here in ten years with gridlock in the city,” he said.

“We want people to come into Durham and feel that a congestion charge on the A690 would deter them.”

Councillor Henig said because the congestion charge was being dropped, the releif road was automatically shelved with it. But he added that in ten to 15 years, the scheme could be dusted off by the council’s successors.

In the meantime, the council will look at ideas including the expansion of the city’s park-and-ride – possibly building new car parks – and trying to improve public transport.

The decision was welcomed by Maggie Bell, who owns Crook Hall with her husband Keith, who launched a campaign against the proposed relief road.

Mrs Bell said: “We are absolutely thrilled.

“We were really concerned.

We feel it is our job to look after Crook Hall and felt it would be terrible if the road happened while we were living here.

“There was huge opposition to the road from the people who visited the gardens.”