A COUNCIL says it is looking at alternatives to controversial plans for a temporary car park on recreation land.

Residents in one of Durham City's most sought-after areas are angry at city council proposals to use The Sands, next to the River Wear, as a two-year replacement for the spaces that will be lost when the Walkergate car park redevelopment starts later this year.

The plans were hatched when Labour controlled the council. Residents hoped that the Liberal Democrats, who won a landslide victory in May, would halt them.

But the new council, which is concerned that parking problems are driving shoppers out of Durham, is applying to the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affair (Defra) for approval of the proposal because the land, owned by the city's Guild of Freemen, may have rights of common over it.

Council leader Sue Pitts said the council was looking at two alternative sites to see if they were feasible. She said the application to Defra was being made because it could take a long time to decide and did not imply The Sands had been settled on.

But she added that if the alternatives could not be developed, The Sands would have to be used.

"The 'do-nothing' option is not one I would feel responsible with. It would potentially reduce the amount of business in the city and would cause traffic chaos and be potentially dangerous.''

Will Johnson, chairman of the action group Save Our Sands (SOS), said he felt let down by the Liberal Democrats who, he said, had pledged their opposition to the plan before the election.

He said The Sands was being 'railroaded through' but that the group would fight to stop it becoming a car park.

"We have funds and we will employ a barrister to fight this. We are prepared to take this all the way.''

The city's Labour MP, Gerry Steinberg, a leader of the council in the 1980s, has entered the fray, saying he is supporting the residents.

"The Sands would involve the use of common land and the removal of a green open area within the city, which is extremely valuable and well-used,'' he said.