A CASH-strapped council wants to spend nearly £150m on “zombie roads”, a major inquiry heard today (Thursday, October 9).

Durham County Council’s 15-year masterplan the County Durham Plan (CDP) proposes western and northern bypasses to ease congestion through Durham city centre, funded by allowing new housing developments.

But Kirsty Thomas, from the Friends of Durham Green Belt, told the ongoing CDP examination in public the authority had wanted to build the roads for up to 50 years, labelling them “zombie roads” as they kept coming back from the dead.

She accused the council of backing new housing on green belt land at the edge of the city to justify the roads, which she claimed would cost a combined total of £136m.

“How can we need two relief roads at a cost of approaching £150m to support the case for homes we don’t even need; and how do the roads effectively reduce car dependence and the CO2 emissions they create?

“All this needs a better answer and until it’s found, we would suggest the Plan is unsound,” she said.

The council said it had considered alternatives, including a London-style citywide congestion charge, workplace car parking charges and heavily subsidised buses.

Strategic traffic manager Dave Wafer said if housing growth could be delivered without the relief roads, the council would “absolutely” do it – but extending the existing peninsula congestion charge would “probably kill off the city centre forever”.

Traffic chiefs are battling to resolve long-standing problems caused by 1970s decisions to channel all through traffic through the city centre, over Milburngate Bridge – which now takes 40,000 vehicles a day.

As revealed in The Northern Echo in August, £2.5m has been earmarked for “smart” traffic lights to cut rush-hour congestion and air pollution.

But local historian Dorothy Hamilton told the inquiry the western bypass would severely damage the historic Beaurepaire site and evidence for the Battle of Neville’s Cross and transport campaigner Tony Walker said it would be an act of rural vandalism.

The western bypass would link the B6302 near Stonebridge and the A691 at Sniperley and the northern road would join Rotary Way near Pity Me to the A690 near Belmont.

The inquiry at Durham County Cricket Club is expected to last six weeks. Tomorrow (Friday, October 11), the focus is proposed major housing developments outside Durham City, including around Bishop Auckland, Crook, Newton Aycliffe, Peterlee and Chester-le-Street.