Developers have won full approval to build 46 homes at a disused reservoir site.

Homes By Carlton applied for planning permission to build three to five-bedroom detached and semi-detached houses off Darlington Road, Sadberge.

The firm planned to build on the 1.74-hectare site of a former Northumbrian Water reservoir which has been redundant since about 1985.

Homes will be constructed on the site of the former reservoir basin, which will be removed.

Embankments will be kept and "retained as a landscaped area with an area of open space at the entrance to the site", says a planning report.

Darlington Borough Council approved the principle of developing the site with outline planning permission granted for the scheme in February 2020.

The full plans came before the planning committee in its last meeting at the town hall.

Councillors had to consider issues including heritage assets, visual and residential amenity, road safety and landscaping.

The plan prompted eight letters of objection.

Objectors raised issues like loss of privacy, overlooking, noise and smell from a proposed pumping station, road safety, traffic, parking, drainage, impact on school places, harm to wildlife, flora and fauna, and overdevelopment of a village not big enough to accommodate it.

A council conservation officer raised concerns about the detailed design, materials and suitability of the homes.

However the council's report said "the overall appearance and layout of the proposed development is considered to respond well to the constraints of the site".

The conservation officer believed the development would affect the reservoir's historic form and "monumentality".

But as the site was of "relatively minor architectural interest", the plan's impact on the Sadberge conservation area was deemed "negligible or neutral", leaving it "substantially unharmed".

Planners did not believe the plan would lead to unacceptable loss of privacy.

The report states: "Traffic generation and highway safety impacts, visual impacts including the impact on the Sadberge conservation area, together with consideration of various technical matters relating to drainage, land contamination, noise attenuation, tree protection, archaeology and affordable housing were considered and agreed at outline stage.

"The submitted details relating to appearance, landscaping, layout, and scale are considered to be acceptable and do not give rise to any unacceptable impacts in terms of visual and residential amenity or highway safety."

Councillors on the planning committee granted planning permission with conditions.

The developer will have to pay £46,800 towards public transport and £15,000 towards improving the play area in Sadberge.

Another planning condition requires the development to provide 20% affordable housing.