ANGRY neighbours are hoping for a last-minute change of heart over the construction of a children's centre in an east Durham village.

Officers will tomorrow recommend that Durham County Council's planning committee gives the go-ahead for an Early Years Research Unit and Children's Centre next to the award-winning Wingate Community Nursery School.

But residents living in nearby Partridge Terrace and New Cross Row have warned the development will make a dangerous traffic problem worse and have submitted a 187-name petition opposing the plan.

The proposal is intended to extend the range of pre-school facilities on the site.

Bill and Sandra Marley, who live in Partridge Terrace, directly overlooking the nursery site, said that while they were unhappy about the prospect of looking out at brick walls, it was the potential traffic problem that was causing them the most concern.

Other worried neighbours, including Susan Flint, Dorothy Michael and Elaine Churnside, warned that narrow one-way streets were already congested and any new development would make them impossible to negotiate.

Mrs Michael told how on two occasions an ambulance attending her husband was unable to reach her home in New Cross Row because of the number of cars in the street.

Residents are also concerned that an existing four-car parking bay will be allocated to nursery staff.

They are also sceptical that a combination of single and double yellow lines, resident parking permits, coupled with new parking provision allocated at nearby Wellfied School for those using the nursery complex will resolve the problems.

But head of planning John Suckling will be recommending the approval of the development subject to a raft of conditions accompanying the go-ahead from the Government Office of the North-East.

Paddy Beele, head of the nursery complex, said that all the agencies involved had bent over backwards to make sure all objections were considered, and plans had been amended to meet their demands.

Easington District Council has offered no objections to the proposal, but Wingate Parish Council has submitted an objection.