A PUBLIC inquiry will be held this summer to end a longrunning saga over housing plans in Spennymoor.

Planning officers have been in talks with builder Barratt over residential schemes for Whitworth Park since 2004.

The application will be handed to the Secretary of State to resolve.

The housing company has lodged appeals against the non-determination of the plans by the former Sedgefield Borough Council.

The company could apply for costs from Durham County Council, which has replaced the borough council, if the inspector finds it acted unreasonably.

The 60-hectare Whitworth Park site has been designated for up to 700 homes as part of a comprehensive scheme, incorporating a golf course and environmental and community enhancements, since 1996.

A consortium of developers – Bellway, Persimmon and Yuills – has already built on a corner of the land where they have planning permission for 236 homes.

Consent was also granted to Barratts in 2006 for a further 100 homes at the west of the site, next to Whitworth Lane, which are yet to be built.

Three more phases of development have been proposed by Barratts – for a total of 406 homes – along with a related drainage scheme.

But the former Sedgefield Borough Council failed to reach a decision over those four applications, two of which date back to 2004, mainly because objections from Natural England had remained unresolved.

The environmental group was worried about the proposals’ ecological impact and called for conditions to protect flora and fauna on the site.

Frustrated by the delays, Barratts appealed to the Planning Inspectorate against the council’s non-determination of its plans.

Although the parties have since resolved objections to the housing schemes, with a few drainage issues outstanding, the decision is out of the authority’s hands because the appeals process has started.

Councillors will consider the plans tomorrow and decide whether they would have backed them.

A Barratt North-East spokesman said: “We appealed to the Planning Inspector for non-determination within the prescribed time because Sedgefield Borough Council effectively refused to take the matter to committee.

“We have not provided the council with any additional information for it to reach a decision to recommend the application.”