RESIDENTS celebrated yesterday after achieving in a week what a council had refused to do for nearly 100 years - resurfacing their street.

People in Temple Gardens, Templetown, Consett, County Durham, became so sick of petitioning Durham County Council to adopt their private road that they clubbed together and raised the £2,500 needed to pay a contractor.

Billy Geoghegan, who has lived in the street for more than 30 years, said: "It has been a long struggle, but we have got there in the end.

"The road was terrible. There were pot-holes all over the place - you couldn't drive down it without damaging your car.

"I remember my mother and father trying to get this sorted out, and they said it had been going on for a long time, so it could be that people have been trying since the homes were built."

Durham County Council had always refused to take responsibility for the street, unless homeowners paid more than £1,000 per household to have it brought up to standard.

A council spokesman said that the resurfacing work did not mean the road could be adopted.