ONE of Darlington's busiest roads could struggle to cope with hundreds of extra vehicles when a new depot opens, it has been claimed.

The 740,000sq ft Argos distribution centre is taking shape on the Faverdale East business park, on the edge of Darlington.

But a Darlington Borough councillor is concerned that West Auckland Road - the main route from the site into Darlington town centre - and Rotary Way will have to deal with more than 2,000 vehicles a day.

Councillor Barrie Armstrong, who represents the Faverdale ward, questioned what the borough council's highways department intended to do about the traffic situation.

"When Argos is fully up and running, they expect 2,200 additional traffic movements per day," he said at the latest full council meeting.

"That is one every 39 seconds, day and night.

"They are not able to provide a solution to this at the moment.

"The existing traffic on Rotary Way will all filter out onto West Auckland Road. An already difficult situation will become much, much worse."

The figures were taken from a survey carried out by Argos, which intends to open the centre by early August.

Coun Nick Wallis, cabinet member for highways, said the situation was being monitored and there was an on-going study to see if an "engineering solution" could be found.