SMOOTH-FLOWING traffic and ample parking spaces in Darlington are hampering efforts to get people onto public transport.

Business managers and council officers made the comments at the fourth Employers Travel Forum meeting yesterday, when they discussed travel plans.

Travel plans were introduced in England by the Government in 1997, to get employers to encourage their staff to stop making journeys to work in their cars.

They are increasingly becoming a requirement for planning permission, but they can also be of financial benefit to the firm if the plan works well.

Some of the ways employers could get a travel plan running were explained by Dr Tom Rye, of Colin Buchanan and Partners, in Edinburgh.

He said there were steps that could be taken which are inexpensive, such as organising a car-sharing scheme and improving cycle facilities.

This could be scaled up to include incentives such as negotiating cheaper public transport for staff with bus or train companies, or new public transport routes, and even making payments to staff to get them to use other forms of transport.

Dr Rye added that disincentives would add to how effective a travel plan was, such as limiting car parking and changing policies on business travel.

However, Bill Westland, travel plan coordinator at Darlington Borough Council, said: "People say we don't have a congestion problem or a parking problem and that is a barrier to change."

Ann Carruthers, the council's transport policy manager, said: "All of the travel plans on the go at the moment in Darlington are in response to specific parking or traffic problems."

To encourage Darlington firms to improve travel, the council has £10,000 to distribute on a first come, first served basis to help employers with their travel plan initiatives.

Anyone interested should contact Neil Linfoot at the council.