A STRATEGY is being prepared to tackle car parking and traffic problems in two Teesdale towns.

Durham County Council is treating the strategies in Barnard Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale as high priority and regards them as crucial in efforts to rejuvenate the area in the wake of last year's foot-and-mouth crisis.

Because there is no information for Middleton-in-Teesdale and the Barnard Castle figures are out-of-date, people living in the towns are being invited to tell the council about the problems they are experiencing.

In recent years, a number of traffic measures have been carried out in Barnard Castle, but they have not formed part of a comprehensive strategy dealing with wider traffic and parking issues and the links between these and other transport, economic and environmental matters.

Chris Tunstall, the county council's director of environmental and technical services, said: "If both these market towns are to develop as thriving service centres for rural Teesdale, it is essential that access, traffic management and car parking are identified and resolved in the short-term."

Any measures arising from the strategy will form a key component of the council's mini-package for Barnard Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale in its Local Transport Plan.

They will also feature in the Teesdale Market Towns Initiative, of which the county council is a member, and its plans for settlements during the next three years.

People living in either town are asked to send details of traffic and parking problems they would like to be investigated to: James Castle, Strategic Traffic Section, Environmental and Technical Services, Durham County Council, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UQ.