DRIVERS will be paying £2 to drive on to Durham City's peninsula from this autumn.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has approved Durham County Council's plan to make the winding street from the Market Place the country's first toll road.

The scheme is likely to come into operation in late September or early October and motorists who flout the charge will be spared the £30 penalty in the early days at least.

A pay point with rising bollards is being installed near Boots in the Market Place. It will be monitored by CCTV cameras and drivers will have to pay on exit.

The charges will apply Mondays to Saturdays from 10am to 4pm but there are exemptions for residents and their visitors, mopeds, motorcycles and bicycles, disabled drivers with pre-arranged parking spaces and people going to establishments with off-street parking.

The scheme will mean the loss of disabled parking bays in the Market Place but proceeds from the tolls will go to Durham Shopmobility.

The the charge is part of an on-going traffic management scheme in the city that has seen the introduction of on-street pay and display parking.

It aims to inprove the environment and make Market Place and Saddler Street safer for pedestrians - up to 17,000 use the narrow street on Saturdays.

The peninsula is home to the cathedral and castle World Heritage site, Durham Chorister School and Durham University colleges.

A new regular shuttle bus service will be introduced before the scheme starts to ferry people between the peninsula and the city's car parks and railway station.

Highways manager Roger Elphick said: "We want to deter what we call mobile parkers - people who drop someone off in the Market Place and then head up to Palace Green and turn round.

"If this had been anywhere else it would have been pedestrianised long ago but because it is the only way into the peninsula for traffic we can't do that.''

Council leader Ken Manton said the council believed the toll - the council calls it an 'access charge' - would resolve the conflict between pedestrians and vehicles.

There has been little official opposition to the scheme although the City of Durham Trust called for it to be run on a trial basis and raised concerns that jams will build up before and after the charging times.