A REGENERATION project which will bring 1,000 jobs to County Durham is to start next month after funding was secured for the first phase of the scheme.

Developer Terrace Hill yesterday announced it had secured £27.67m to fund the first part of the Tindale Crescent development, near Bishop Auckland, and work will start on-site in the coming weeks.

The £45m project will bring a new stadium for Bishop Auckland Football Club, a cinema, bowling alley and restaurants to the area, and will create 1,000 jobs – 800 on site and 200 in the supply chain.

Announcing the first-round funding package with Aviva Pensions Ltd yesterday, Terrace Hill confirmed that the 92,333sq ft foodstore had been pre-let to Sainsbury’s on a 25-year lease. The store, along with the stadium, will be first to be built.

The Tindale Crescent project – welcomed in the area for its pledge to create jobs without harming trade in Bishop Auckland’s shops – was threatened by delays earlier this year over planning permission.

After initial permission was granted by the former Wear Valley District Council in November last year, final agreement on details of phased working was not reached until July 28 this year – days before the football club ran out of time to claim a £250,000 stadium grant secured from the Football Foundation.

Duncan McEwan, Stocktonbased Terrace Hill’s retail director, hailed the funding and said the start of work is now only weeks away.

“The signing of this agreement is the next step in developing our Tindale Crescent scheme, which will regenerate land that has been vacant for some time and create a significant number of new longterm employment opportunities for the community,” he said.

“We look forward to starting on site in November and progressing our plans for the remainder of this exciting scheme in 2010.”

The breakthrough is also a major boost for Bishop Auckland Football Club, the ten times FA Amateur Cup winners, who are desperate to have their own stadium more than 15 years after directors first suggested a move from their famous Kingsway ground.

They have shared pitches with neighbours Shildon, Spennymoor and West Auckland since Kingsway was sold to developers in 2002.