DURHAM County Council has won a £1m bonus from the Government to spend on the county's roads.

Civil servants judged the council's performance as a highway authority as "above average" and awarded the extra cash on top of its £16m core funding for transport.

The Government Office of the North-East said the council's delivery of schemes in its five-year Local Transport Plan was impressive.

Chris Tunstall, the council's deputy chief executive for environment, welcomed the award.

He said: "The scale of the reward puts our progress and performance into perspective and reflects the continuing commitment of our elected members and staff to improving the transport infrastructure of County Durham.

"Although the £17.25m we have received for next year's work is an improvement on last year's settlement sum, it falls about £2.5m short of our bid.

"But the £1m reward will help us maintain the level of progress that we, the Government and the travelling public are looking for."

The council's priorities for the year include spending £6m on highway maintenance and £1.4m on developing and introducing real-time information for bus passengers using satellite technology on major routes.

Road safety schemes will get £490,000, £400,000 will be spent providing and promoting safer routes to school and a further £350,000 will go on promoting walking and cycling as alternatives to using the car.

The council will spend more than £1m on the A167, the former Great North Road, which became its responsibility when the road was downgraded from a trunk route.

The council has provisionally set aside money for two new roads, £5.7m for the Chilton Bypass and £3m for the A688 Wheatley Hill to Bowburn link road.

The Government has also pledged separate funding for the council's Durham City park-and-ride scheme, designed to reduce city centre congestion.

The three parking sites recently won planning permission and the council is now trying to acquire the land