Darlington residents hit out at verges on West Auckland Road

One resident described her worries about getting her children safely into the car for the school run and another described the process as "dangerous".

The grass verge that has been churned up by drivers runs along one side of the road and residents blame neighbours and delivery drivers.

Jan Cossins, local councillor for Cockerton, stressed that simply concreting over the grass would cause a flooding risk.

She said: "People just don't care where they are parking their cars. I'm not a driver so I don't have that frustration of looking for a space to park.

"People do complain about a lack of parking and that is because the amount of cars on the road has increased so much.

"Cars just park all over. On West Auckland Road it has got really bad, particularly near the takeaways.

"We want to support business but people can't just pull up and park anywhere. 

"The grass verges are now just horrendous. 

"The problem with concreting over the grass is that it will just flood."

Sarah Walker, a resident on the street, described the state of the grass as "absolutely horrific".

She said: "I would park on the road but I worry someone will hit it.

"I started parking on the verges. I'm paranoid it will be hit otherwise. It's terrifying."

Fellow resident Emma Foster described how she thought that the council need to concrete the verges.

She said: "It's an absolute nightmare.

"You can't park on the road because there are cars on the other side.

"It just becomes a big mud bath. It's dangerous really.

"They need to be concreted over."

Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, described how hard the morning school run was.

They said: "It's ridiculous to get into the car on a morning.

"I have two disabled children and a four-year-old and it's horrible trying to get them into the car.

"Then they tramp all the mud into the house too and that's more cleaning."

Councillor Libby McCollom, the council’s Cabinet Member for Local Services said, "Unfortunately, residents are choosing to pull their vehicles onto the grass verges to park.

"Given the extremely wet conditions over the winter, the cars are causing significant damage as the verges are very soft and not designed for cars to park on.

"We have advised residents not to park on the verges on numerous occasions. We understand residents’ reluctance to park wholly on the road and residents have the option to apply and pay for vehicle crossings to enable access to parking at their properties.

"We are aware residents would like laybys created, but this is not affordable within the financial constraints of the Council. Information about applying for vehicle crossings is available on the council website. The verges will be monitored and repaired where necessary but vehicles should not be parked on the verges."