PLANS for the £1m redevelopment of a rundown town centre bus station have been unveiled.

Derwentside District Council is consulting residents on a choice of four schemes for its proposed overhaul of the bus depot in Stanley.

The first will see the station built just yards from the existing building on Mary Street car park, with a new pedestrian link to Front Street. Modelled on the Haymarket bus station in Newcastle, it could also include shops.

A second controversial plan suggests lifting the ban on traffic in Front Street to admit buses only. The street has been a pedestrian zone since the Seventies and hosts a large weekly market. But shopkeepers in the road are in favour of the scheme because they say it will bring more people past their doors.

Cheaper options are simply to install a line of bus stops and shelters along Front Street at the rear of the Asda store, or a similar scheme in Beamish Street, with a bus link opened to Scott Street.

The project will be financed by the sale of the existing station to a retail developer, with a further £300,000 earmarked from the Local Transport Plan.

Council chiefs estimate the new station could be up and running within 18 months - provided it wins approval from Durham County Council's Highways department and the Government grants planning permission.

North Durham MP Kevan Jones, who has been campaigning to have the site cleaned up, said: "It is a good step forward. We have got movement finally and now we want to see action."

The leader of Derwentside District Council, Alex Watson, said: "That land is a saleable asset. It is in the commercial centre of Stanley and will realise a considerable sum of money. Several developers have already expressed an interest and we are a matter of weeks away from inviting tenders."