A NORTH-EAST community's 50-year wait for a bypass ended in celebration yesterday when a Government inspector cleared the way for the £5m route to go ahead.

The A688 West Auckland bypass will halve traffic through the centre of the village, improving road safety and opening up business links between County Durham and the North-West of England.

It was approved by Transport Secretary Alistair Darling following a public inquiry conducted by inspector John Watson in the village in July.

The one-and-a-half-mile stretch is the second stage of a route between Tindale Crescent and the Oakley Service Station, in Staindrop Road, passing through the communities of Tindale Crescent, St Helen Auckland and West Auckland, where 41 road accidents have been reported over the past three years.

Supporters believe it will attract industry as well as improving access to existing factories and to Bishop Auckland FC's planned new stadium at Tindale Crescent.

It will also revive calls for a third section of road to be built around the western end of West Auckland, where a route has already been pencilled in from the A68, at Spring Gardens, to the Oakley garage.

West Auckland councillor Sonny Douthwaite, who chairs the county's highways committee, said last night the whole village would welcome the decision.

He said: "It will benefit the whole of West Auckland. We have waited for this for years.

"It has been talked about for as long as I can remember - for more than 50 years at least. It can't come a minute too soon."

Farmer Stephen Cleminson, who supported the bypass at the inquiry, said: "It has been on the cards since I was a little boy and I think it is badly needed.

"For it to be a full scheme, we need the bypass to happen at Toft Hill as well.

"It desperately needs that to be successful.

"It is bound to be a good thing for industrial development and the people of West Auckland."

But the decision was a major blow for Andrew and Vera Wilson, whose dream retirement home in Hummerbeck sits on the road's planned junction with the A68.

The Wilsons were the prime objectors to the scheme at the inquiry, asking for the route to be moved northwards away from their detached property, Darley House, and its garden.

Mrs Wilson said last night: "We are bitterly disappointed.

"We would not have bought the house five years ago if we had known this was planned."