Art exhibit launched to oppose Darlington's Skerningham plan

The plans would see 4,500 homes built in the countryside near Darlington during the next few decades.

Leanne Carroll and David Clark have made it their mission to capture beautiful moments of nature to protest the plans.

Their work will be displayed for three days, starting on September 1, at the Darlington Friends’ Community Hub on Skinnergate.

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Darlington Green Party and the Skerningham Woodland Action Group are sponsoring the exhibition, called “Skerningham: You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ’Til It’s Gone”.

Councillor Richard Lawley, from the Green Party, said: "Darlington is currently nearly four times ahead of its official house-building target yet the need for smaller, less expensive homes closer to amenities is not being met, despite there being a number of neglected brownfield sites.

"According to the Strategic Housing Market Assessment our borough should be building 233 more affordable homes each year but it is larger, expensive homes that the developers find most profitable.

"These bigger homes, out in the countryside, also bring in much more council tax, of course, which may be why they are popular with local councils which have had their budgets cut by the Government over the last decade."

Some of the pictures on display show owls, deer, foxes and butterflies.

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The exhibition will be held just days before the Skerningham Garden Village housing project is on the agenda for the local authority’s Cabinet.

That meeting is scheduled for September 5.

More discussion is expected at a full council meeting on September 28.