UP TO 600 homes could be built as part of a new residential development to the north of Darlington.
Banks Property, part of the County Durham-headquartered Banks Group, has submitted a planning application which covers a 35-hectare site in Beaumont Hill to the south of the River Skerne, between the A167 and the East Coast Mainline.
The project, which is located on a site identified for residential development in the recently adopted Darlington Borough Local Plan, would include a mix of high-quality homes of different sizes, including affordable housing and bungalows, as well as a small number of self-build plots.
It comes after plans were submitted in 2019 for 350 new homes on the same site – a pocket of land that borders the bypass linking the A1(M) and the A66 on the outskirts of Darlington.
But Banks has now returned with plans to almost double the number of houses on the site.
Substantial areas of public open space, a small retail convenience store unit and a range of biodiversity enhancements also feature in the outline design, while provision for the local distributor road has been made within the revised scheme, should that be needed in the future.
Darlington Borough Council’s planning committee is expected to consider the application before the end of the year.
The authority has recently come under fire after a motion was passed to pave the way for a 4,500-home development on a 487-hectare site in Skerningham. But the Skerningham Woodland Action Group (SWAG) is asking for a fresh plan to be drawn up with more consultation with residents.
Lewis Stokes, community relations manager at The Banks Group, says: “We’ve been continuing to work on the detail of our Beaumont Hill development over the last two and a half years in the context of the evolving local situation, with the involvement of local people, community leaders and other stakeholders being central to the planning application that we have now submitted to Darlington Borough Council.
“These proposals would enable us to create a high-quality residential development at a scale that is wholly appropriate to its setting and that will help address the increasingly urgent demand for a greater supply of quality homes, both locally and right across North East England.
“The variety and number of properties now included within our planning application would make Beaumont Hill an accessible and attractive option for all type of homebuyers, while the public open space and other facilities would help it quickly become a vibrant new community.
“We’re excited to have now reached this point and hope Darlington Borough Council’s planning committee will give us the opportunity to deliver a scheme that would provide a wide range of economic, employment, social, supply chain and environmental benefits to the local area.”
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