THE ARRIVAL of thousands of students brought annual scenes of chaos on roads round Durham city centre yesterday.

Traffic tailbacks were in evidence from mid morning on all feeder roads into the city, particularly the A690 dual carriageway from the Carrville interchange of the A1(M).

Police restricted traffic on the narrow streets of the cathedral and castle peninsula, as parents arrived to drop off sons and daughters on the eve of freshers' week, at Durham University.

Sergeant Ian Butler said despite limiting the time vehicles could spend on the peninsula - dropping off undergraduates at the Bailey colleges near the cathedral - traffic problems developed on surrounding roads.

"We stagger the flow of traffic to the colleges on the peninsula from the Market Place. They are given elected times depending on the college and then they have an hour maximum to get in, drop off and get out," he said.

"It causes an overflow of traffic, stacking up from the Market Place, up Claypath, and on Leazes Road up the A690, as well as other roads in the vicinity.

"It is the one day a year we have these sort of problems and it's a complete nightmare.

"We can only really manage it to a certain degree. There's not a great deal more we can do."