CONTROVERSIAL plans for a new council estate have been given the go ahead despite objections from residents.

People living in and around the McMullan Road area of Darlington have condemned the proposals for 42 apartments and 20 houses, saying it will make traffic unbearable.

The application by Darlington Borough Council includes the development of internal roads, car parking and landscaping.

Tracey Harrison, who lives near Allington Way, told councillors at the meeting of Darlington Borough Council’s planning committee this Wednesday that traffic on MacMullan Road was at a standstill for seven hours every day.

She submitted pictures of what she described as an every-day occurrence outside her home along with details of an accident in the area that had happened earlier in the week.

She said: “This is going to have a huge impact on our lives. We are trapped in our homes. The road cannot cope with the traffic now. It certainly cannot cope with the traffic that will be generated from this.’’

Andy Casey, highways officer for Darlington Borough Council, said that he was very sympathetic to what people living in the area were saying.

He said: “I agree in general with residents about the traffic conditions in that area and we do have a strategy in place to deal with that traffic.”

He explained that traffic was busier in the whole of the town and not just the McMullan Road and Allington Way area, and revealed that funding was being put in place for new infrastructure to relieve traffic congestion in the area concerned.

But residents said that it would be foolish to agree a development that would generate more traffic when the new infrastructure was not yet in place.

Ms Harrison said: “It is all good and well you saying this but it is us that is living here in the reality.’’

Mr Casey explained to members of the committee that the amount of traffic that would be generated by the development would not be a good enough reason to turn down the application and that the council would lose should it go to appeal.

It was agreed, that although councillors sympathised with residents they could not find a reason, under planning regulations, to turn the proposals down.