TRANSPORT chiefs say they are pleased with the first full day of a North-East park-and-ride scheme.

After a free trial at the weekend, Durham City's long-awaited park-and-ride scheme became fully operational yesterday as it welcomed its first paying customers.

Over the weekend, more than 7,500 people used the scheme, which has three secure car parks, with more than 1,100 spaces, linked to the city centre by buses.

But transport managers from Durham County Council were nervously awaiting yesterday morning's rush hour, when the £10m scheme faced its biggest test - whether it could persuade commuters to leave their cars on the outskirts of the city and complete their journeys by bus.

By lunchtime, it appeared to have been largely successful.

At the biggest site, near the A1(M) at Belmont, the car park was about three-quarters full, as was the southern site at Howlands, while the smaller Sniperley site was about half full.

The buses were running to schedule and there were even car parking spaces at the notoriously crowded car park at The Sands, in the city.

Roger Elphick, the council's head of highways management and one of the main architects of the scheme, said: "The numbers are better than we had expected for the first morning when people are paying.

"It can only build from the level of use we have now and what we have now is beyond what we expected."

At 3pm yesterday, 300 of the 428 spaces at Belmont, 142 of the 294 spaces at Howlands and 140 of the 330 spaces at Sniperley were taken, meaning the parks were just over 55 per cent full.

Council officers say they expect it to take until Easter before people using the system reach a peak.