COUNCILLORS have expressed concern after a week-long traffic survey in their village found almost half of vehicles were speeding.

About 20,000 vehicles were checked as they passed through the village of Neasham - of these 8,500 were speeding.

At a meeting of parish councillors earlier this week, motorists were accused of using the village as a rat-run and Darlington Borough Council was blamed for failing to stop the trend.

Councillors said the village was being used by rush-hour traffic trying to avoid hold-ups on the nearby A66.

Speaking after the meeting, Neasham Parish Council chairman John Weighell said: "This is an ongoing problem we have and we are working with the relevant authorities to address it. This is a huge volume of traffic to be passing through a village of this size."

The village has been added to a pool list of more than 80 areas requesting traffic-calming measures. However, Coun Weighell said he was hopeful that plans to improve the A66 bypass would solve the congestion problem.