RESIDENTS concerned about speeding traffic have been told their road will not be restricted to access-only.

People in Davison Road, Darlington, claim their lives have been made a misery by motorists using it as a short-cut to avoid traffic lights in nearby North Road.

They say there have been a number of near-misses, with cars swerving to avoid other vehicles and misjudging bends in the road.

They say in one incident, a three-year-old child was almost hit by a car that sped into the road.

Last week, a speeding car skidded on ice and drove over a grass verge, picking up a large rock from the side of the road and dragging it along.

Resident Trevor Agnew said: "We have been told by the council that because there have been near-misses but no accidents on the road it is not a priority.

"It seems morally dubious that someone has to be hurt or even killed before anything is done."

Mr Agnew and other residents in the road are calling for it to be made access-only to prevent drivers using it as a shortcut.

He said: "Speed bumps would make little difference and would cause a noise nuisance, and there is no way to enforce a speed limit.

"Making the road access- only would not cause problems for anyone apart from people using us as a shortcut, and would only add a few minutes to journeys."

But a spokesman for Darlington Borough Council said it would be impossible to re-route traffic around the town if a physical barrier was put across the road to restrict access.

He said the council had received no specific complaints about Davison Road, although nearby Thompson Road East was on a list of roads to receive traffic-calming measures. He said: "The council gets complaints about certain roads and so do the police.

"We work together to monitor traffic on those roads that receive the most complaints and then budget to carry out appropriate speed reduction measures.

"Many of the roads we have looked at have been the scenes of accidents."