A park-and-ride scheme to ease traffic congestion in Durham's city centre has won nearly £9m of Government funding.

The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) is giving £106m - £3.2m more than last year - in the 2002-03 financial year for transport schemes in County Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and Cleveland.

Durham County Council plans to build three large car parks on the outskirts of the city and run frequent shuttle buses between them and the centre.

The first of these, on land near the A1(M) interchange at Carrville, won planning permission yesterday and is due to open in the autumn of 2003.

Parking and congestion have become big problems in the city and the authority hopes that the scheme will become popular, as it has in other cities, with commuters, shoppers and tourists.

Pay and display on-street parking restrictions have already been introduced and there are plans for a £2 toll on the road to the cathedral and castle World Heritage Site.

Council leader Ken Manton said he was delighted at winning Government funding.

"I am confident it will help reduce traffic congestion," he said.

Two other schemes to win provisional approval are the £8.14m Pegswood bypass, in Northumberland, and the £7.6m redevelopment of the bus and Metro interchange at Four Lane Ends, North Tyneside.

Bids for the A182 East Durham link road and the East Middlesbrough corridor have been rejected because officials say the case for them has not been made.

The DTLR is also giving £35m across the region for road and bridge maintenance, £35m for integrated transport schemes, such as bus lanes and traffic calming, and £34m for schemes approved last year.

The upgrading to dual carriageway of a "sub-standard" stretch of the A689 in County Durham, between Sedgefield and Wynyard, won provisional approval last year and is now confirmed, with funding of £6.1m.

Schemes that have also won provisional approval and funding include the Darlington Eastern Transport Corridor - a new road to key development sites - the A167 Chilton bypass and the A688 Wheatley Hill to Bowburn link, which is aimed at giving better access from East Durham to a proposed rail freight depot and the A1(M).

Work on projects already under way, including the Metro extension to Sunderland and the South Stockton link road, are also getting further funding.

Jim Darlington, planning director for the Government Office for the North-East, said: "The settlement demonstrates the Government's continuing commitment to delivering efficient, reliable and safe local transport systems which will improve the quality of life of people through better local services and better local transport."