A BUS company has applied for permission to move its main depot to a new home.

Operator Go-Ahead has applied to Durham County Council for planning permission to open a new depot on the Hownsgill Industrial Estate, in Consett.

The proposed new depot would, if approved, provide parking for the company’s fleet of 62 buses currently based at Go-Ahead’s garage in Stanley.

The application for the two-acre site also includes mechanics’ workshops, staff parking and office space.

The company says all of its services currently start and end at Consett bus station and therefore vehicles have to be driven 10km to and from the Stanley depot at either end of the working day.

If the application is approved, all service buses would leave the new Consett depot before 7.30am and return after 10.30pm.