FRESH calls have been made to upgrade an increasingly busy road in Newton Aycliffe.

Windlestone Parish Council and Rushyford Residents' Association are concerned about the volume of traffic using the C35, running between Aycliffe and Rushyford.

Both groups have written to Durham County Council, asking it to consider building a link road to replace it.

Residents say that extensive house building in the town means that the narrow road carries much more traffic than it should.

Alma Bailey, secretary of the residents' association, said: "Lots of our residents are quite elderly, and many of them have been in the same house for a long time.

"A lot of them do have their own transport, but some people have to use the bus, and to do that they have to cross this busy road.

"I don't think anybody envisaged how bad that road was going to become with all the extra building in Newton Aycliffe - it's a narrow, undulating road and quite dangerous at times."

Councillor Tony Moore, who has been campaigning to upgrade the road for years, said: "This is now causing great concern to residents, not only in Rushyford, but to the whole town of Newton Aycliffe.

"I do believe that the county council needs to make it a priority to either widen the road, or to do as the county council and the residents' association suggest, and make a new link road.

"I think that's a very good idea and I fully support both of them in this suggestion."

A spokesman for Durham County Council said there were plans to build a new roundabout at the A689 junction, as part of the Chilton by-pass scheme.

This would be able to handle greater volumes of traffic more safely.

He said: "To carry out any sort of improvement would involve the realignment and widening of 1.6km of existing road, together with the provision of a separate track for pedestrians and cyclists, and that would cost £1.5m.

"Any link road would cost even more than that."