WORK started this week on a £10m park-and-ride scheme designed to help improve the flow of traffic in Durham city centre.

The narrow streets of the medieval centre of the city have struggled to cope with the increasing demands of modern commuting, leading to peak-time congestion and notorious parking problems.

Durham City MP Gerry Steinberg conducted the ground-breaking ceremony at Belmont, the first of three proposed park-and-ride facilities which will ring the city.

The development is the third stage of an ambitious plan to cut congestion in the city, following the earlier imposition of on-street parking restrictions and the introduction of the country's first congestion charge - the toll road through the city's peninsula area.

The three park-and-ride sites are situated on the main arterial routes into the city: a 400-space car park to the east of the city at Belmont, near the A1(M)/A690 Carrville interchange where work started on Monday; a 420-space car-park to the south of the city, off the A177 near the Cock of the North; and a 360-space facility for the north and west of the city at Sniperley, near the junction of the A167/A691.

With nearly 1,200 parking spaces available - and room for a further 600 at Belmont if demand requires it - planners at Durham County Council believe the project can make a significant contribution to reducing congestion.

From Christmas, when all three facilities are expected to be completed, commuters, shoppers and visitors will be able to leave their vehicles in secure, camera-controlled car parks and complete their journey by bus. Services to the city centre will be scheduled every ten minutes, with a return adult fare priced at £1.70.

Coun Don Ross, deputy leader of Durham County Council, said the unrelenting growth of traffic in the city had made the scheme essential.

He said: "Coupled with priority measures for the park-and-ride buses, the scheme will result in easier access to the city centre, reduced congestion in the city at peak periods, reduced conflict for the limited supply of long-stay parking spaces and a fast and efficient high quality bus service.

"I am sure it will quickly become a popular and convenient way of getting into town without the hassle of finding a parking space, just as it has in many congested town centres."