A DANGEROUS stretch of road in Chester-le-Street is to become a no-parking area to help reduce accidents.

Motorists often struggled to negotiate Drum Road because parked cars narrowed the road, so members of Durham County Council's highways committee agreed yesterday to introduce no-waiting and no-loading orders.

Many complaints centred on parking conditions adjacent to the CWS warehouse depot, when lorries queue to enter the factory.

A highways committee report stated: "At times, these queues can be quite lengthy, which causes not only inconvenience to other estate road users, but is potentially hazardous, particularly given the very limited forward visibility over the adjacent railway bridge.

"There have also been two recent, fortunately, damage-only, accidents.