AN ambitious scheme aiming to offer personalised travel plans to thousands of people is to be launched.

Officials from Darlington Borough Council will soon be contacting all homeowners in the North Road and Harrowgate Hill areas to ask if they want to take part in the programme. If so, the council's A Town on the Move team will discuss where people travel to, how they usually get there and offer suggestions as to how they could make their journeys differently.

Information about footpaths, cycle routes and public transport provision in the area will be provided to offer residents a greener way of travelling.

Darlington is the first area in the country to carry out personalised travel planning town-wide.

The initiative is part of the Town on the Move scheme, for which the council received £3.2m funding from the Department of Transport.

A council spokeswoman said: "The aim is to get as many people interested as possible, thinking about how they travel and what changes they could make."

The Pierremont, Faverdale and Cockerton areas of town could be the next to be targeted by the Town on the Move team, which yesterday opened a base in the Imperial Centre, Grange Road.

For more information, contact the team on (01325) 388444.