Plans for a £2m primary school have gone back to the drawing board after claims that access to the building would be dangerous.

An application for St Cuthbert's RCVA Primary School, in Crook, has been withdrawn by the Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle after highway bosses said that the proposals were unacceptable and premature.

Father Tony Duffy, chairman of the schools commission, confirmed yesterday that further talks would take place between Durham County Council - the highway authority - and planning officers at Wear Valley District Council.

Father Duffy said: "The council, in their last letter, have suggested that there might be an alternative means of access so we have postponed the planning application to talk with the council."

People living next to the proposed site are relieved that the plans are to be reconsidered.

Many back the idea in principle and have been impressed by architects' drawings of the new building but said they had concerns about the proposed entrance along Sandringham Road and Windsor Terrace.

County Councillor Bob Pendlebury said: "I can understand how the people who live on the access route feel.

"The roads are already congested with parking and the extra traffic will just make it dangerous.

"The district council has advised the applicant that, should they press ahead with it, it would be refused and rather than that happen they have withdrawn it."

Coun Pendlebury added that the problem of safe access would not be easy to solve.

He said: "I think much of the existing school isn't up to standard and everyone concerned is entitled to a much-improved facility.

"Resolving the situation of access is not going to be easy but we do need to find an alternative."

Funding has already been set aside for the project after it was agreed that the 150-year old school building was no longer suitable.

The school submitted the bid in 2002 after governors ruled that it was uneconomic to spend more money patching up what is one of the oldest school buildings in the diocese.