COUNCILLORS will this week discuss plans to replace a disused motor workshop with a fast-food restaurant on a busy roundabout.

Sedgefield Borough Council has received a planning application to demolish the garage at Thinford, near Spennymoor, and build a restaurant in its place.

The applicant, JNR Limited, wants to build the restaurant, and an associated manager's flat and parking, to the south of Thinford Garage-South filling station, near an existing McDonalds outlet.

But Durham County Council's highways department has raised concerns about the proposal because it would create more traffic on an already busy road.

Officers will recommend that the development control committee refuses permission when it meets on Friday, because of road safety issues and because the residential property would lie outside the town's urban framework.