COMMUTERS may face fines if they park their cars in a popular park-and-ride scheme without using the bus service which links the sites with the city centre.

A number of changes are being considered for Durham City's park-and-ride scheme, including a proposed £30 fine for drivers who use the system simply as a car park, or who leave their vehicles overnight.

Durham County Council, which operates the £10m scheme, is considering an amendment order which it says would remove "minor anomalies" from the regulations which have governed park-and-ride since it was set up last December.

In a report to go before the highways committee on January 10, the authority states that the amendments are necessary to ensure that any charge notices issued in future would not be open to any legal challenge.

Officials insist that, at present, there is no major problem, but that the changes would give it the capacity to deal with issues which may arise in the future.

During its first year of operation, more than half-a-million passengers used the park-and-ride scheme, which is the biggest in the North-East.

Three car parks have been built around the city - at Sniperley, Carrville/Belmont and Howlands Farm - with total capacity for about 1,100 vehicles.

Regular shuttle buses ferry passengers into the city centre six days a week, for a return fare of £1.70 a day, and the scheme has been hailed a major success.

However, following a consultation carried out in September, 18 objections to proposed changes were lodged with the council, almost all from people living near the Belmont site.

One of the proposed amendments would make it a condition of parking at any of the sites that drivers use the shuttle bus service.

This proposal follows concerns that some drivers were using the sites as a free car park to reach workplaces on the edge of the city, and that others were using them as a base for car-sharing.

Another amendment would allow fines to be imposed for anyone leaving their car at a park-and-ride site after 7pm, when the scheme closes for the night - a move which objectors fear might push overnight parking into adjacent streets.

Danny Harland, contracts manager (parking), at the environment department of Durham County Council, said: "The proposed minor amendments to the order are designed to supplement already existing regulations at our park-and-ride sites.

"There isn't a big problem with people using park-and-ride car parks and not travelling on buses, or with people leaving their vehicles overnight, but the proposed changes would allow us to better enforce the parking conditions should this become an issue."