VILLAGERS fighting plans for a traffic light junction on a busy road have accused a council of hypocrisy.

Durham County Council's highways committee angered people at West Rainton last month by backing plans for lights at the junction of the A690 and a new housing development.

The West Rainton Parish Housing Action Group wants an under or overpass - recommended by a planning inspector in the early 1990s - and says the lights will be unsafe. Residents are concerned that the council relied on the developer's study on the scheme's impact.

Recently, the council announced that a countywide survey it commissioned from transport specialist MVA showed speeding and cars using rat runs were people's biggest transport concerns.

The council said it would try to tackle the concerns in its five-year local transport plan.

But group spokeswoman Lesley King, said: "It is sheer hypocrisy of Durham County Council to claim that it is concerned about rat runs."

She said eastbound traffic from the new estates would "inevitably" cut through the village to avoid the lights "thus providing the perfect conditions for the rat runs the council purports to be against".

She said: "Durham County Council seems to place a lot of store by the survey carried out by MVA. What a pity the council does not appear to have been so concerned about the outcomes of the West Rainton scheme.

"Durham County Council has relied solely on a survey commissioned and paid for by the developers."

No one was available for comment at the county council.

l Durham City Council, which will decide whether to give planning permission for the junction and the 193 homes, has commissioned its own traffic survey.