PLANS for a three-storey residential care home are being opposed by families living nearby in the town centre.

Householders close to the site of the proposed 60-bedroom care home in Hopgarth Gardens, Chester-le-Street, say the increase in traffic would make their lives a misery.

Despite assurances that nearby Picktree Lane will be used for service vehicles, residents believe narrow Hopgarth Gardens will also be used by ambulances, laundry and catering vans, as well as builders' lorries while the home is built.

Officers at Chester-le-Street District Council are advising councillors to approve the plans, with amendments including traffic calming measures in nearby streets. The proposed site is an eyesore, and has not been used since it was a Durham County Council depot several years ago.

Ian Howd, who will live next to the development, predicted traffic chaos in the narrow, winding streets which surround the site.

He said: "We don't really have a problem with the care home itself, but we can see problems with the access to and from the site.

"The proposed entrance to the home at the end of Hopgarth Gardens is so wide that it will give me no room to get my car in and out of my drive.

"I will have to drop people off halfway up the road if I have any passengers. Also, we find it difficult to believe that they will control what kind of traffic comes up this road.

"They say it will only be small vehicles, and that all the heavy stuff will use the other entrance from Picktree Lane, but who is going to enforce that?"

The 50m long building will be built by John Oates if the scheme is approved by the council's planning committee next month.

Members saw an outline planning application at their meeting in February, and visited the site on Tuesday.

Mr Oates already owns Durham House Residential Care Home, in Mains Park Road.

The home is the second controversial development for the town to be put forward in recent months.

Plans for a bail hostel were submitted, and subsequently rejected, last year.