Newton Aycliffe town centre's £25m redevelopment project was supposed to revitalise the ailing town. But, just as the council planners warned, the lack of integration between both sites has devastated it. Chris Fay reports

IT'S perhaps just as well there are no windows on the mezzanine floor of the Tesco supermarket in Newton Aycliffe.

Gliding up the magnetic escalators towards the superstore's glittering array of plasma TVs is a pleasant experience - a window might spoil it.

And if there was a window, a west facing one, it would not inspire anyone to look any further for their shopping.

It would, however, frame perfectly, the boarded up windows of the dilapidated health centre, the crumbling library, and the mothballed retail block, that have come to symbolise Aycliffe's failed redevelopment project.

"I used to shop in Somerfield but since Tesco opened I hardly ever go into the old town centre," said 43-year-old, Lynn Morgan.

"It's become an embarrassment, no one knows what's happening with it, but something really needs to be done."

Sarah Gemmell, 29, motioning towards the old town centre, said: "There's nothing over there that you can't get in Tesco, you can't even go window shopping, most of them are boarded up."

Both women are among a growing number of shoppers who have shunned the old town centre and as a result over a third of the units are empty.

But it would be unfair to simply blame Tesco when controversy has surrounded the site since the Avenue School was demolished in 1992.

Even then, initial plans for a 15-acre shopping and leisure complex were met with concern from traders that their businesses would be hit.

The £25m facelift, unveiled in 2000, was designed to allay those fears - a multimillion pound sweetener to ease Tesco's path into the town.

But an agreement between the existing town centre owners, Daejan Holdings, and the other partners involved was never reached.

And despite warnings from their own planners over integration, in May 2003, Sedgefield Borough Council pushed the development forward in separate phases.

"It was done for the right reasons at the time to secure the development of the town centre," said Brian Allen, chief executive of Sedgefield Borough Council.

"We had a site that had been derelict in the centre of Newton Aycliffe for many years this was an opportunity to get some investment in there.

"It was regarded at the time as a sensible way forward by not just the council as planning authority, but by the owners of certain sites and the new developer coming in, that a phased development was the best was to secure the long term future of the town centre.

"I don't think it was a question of saying who was right who was wrong, the thinking at the time was, that was the best way to secure the investment."

Phase one was completed four years ago and the retail giants were installed at the heart of it.

But phase two, a pedestrian plaza, new health centre and public buildings, linking the two sites, never got started.

Tesco is now in its fourth year of trading and has even expanded into a Tesco Extra while the rest of town has just deteriorated.

A block of about 20 retail units on Dalton Way was mothballed in 2003 and Daejan, the owner's of that "certain site" called for a judicial review of the planning.

The block's demolition was critical to the integration of both sides of the town but it still stands empty and the whole town is showing signs of neglect.

The Cubby, an old people's drop-in centre housed in a Portacabin, at Tesco's goods entrance, is in a disgraceful condition. But it is a model example of the of problems facing the crumbling library and run-down health centre, nearby.

"We have to manage and maintain this building ourselves," said Ken Dixon, treasurer of The Cubby.

"At the moment the roof leaks when it rains, the building is damp and we've had the windows smashed, but what can we do if we don't know what is happening, we can't even help ourselves.

"We could spend a load of money fixing this place up and be told it's coming down tomorrow we just don't know."

Just as the Borough's planners warned the lack of integration between the two sites has took its economic toll over the years.

"We have the products and a few other national chains here in the town, but for how long," said one store manager.

"When you think of Aycliffe you think of boarded up windows and graffiti not a shopping destination for quality products.

"The car park in Tesco's is always busy but the town centre is always empty, people just don't come to the old side.

"After years of just stagnating it's going to take an awful lot to change people's minds about this town."

Chris Young recently had to down size his twin-fronted newsagents and stationary store, Steven's, to a single unit.

He said: "The traders that are left are just getting squeezed out.

"As more and more units are empty it just means there are fewer businesses to share the service charges and maintenance costs, which are going through the roof."

But one of the biggest frustrations through this whole sorry saga for traders, shoppers, service users and even the town centre planners alike, has been the not knowing.

"Our hands were tied," said Chris Tunstall, deputy chief executive of Durham County Council.

"It was always within the agreement that CTP had a set period of time to deliver the development.

"Despite assurance after assurance from them, the development never came but, we were in a legal agreement.

"Even if we wanted to discuss the project with another developer, we couldn't.

"I can assure you that we didn't just sit back on this, right until the very last day before we served notice we were pushing and we were hoping that some progress could be made.

"We served notice as soon as we could and now that we have we just want to get the development moving and give the shoppers and traders in Aycliffe the town centre they deserve."