A DEVELOPER’S attempt to regenerate a “prestige employment”

site with the potential to create 1,000 jobs has been dealt a fresh blow.

A planning inspector has dismissed an appeal by Commercial Development Projects after its application to redevelop the former Torrington works, in Darlington, was turned down.

The firm wanted to build offices, warehousing, industrial units and storage space on the land.

The project also included a restaurant, pub and 57-bed hotel, for which conditional contracts with multi-national companies had already been signed.

Neil McAndrew, from Commercial Development Pro- By Paul Cook paul.cook@nne.co.uk B6280 Yarm Road B6280 A66 LingfieldWay Salters Lane McMullen Rd Wild Rd Morrisons Morton Park A66 Proposed site for mixed use development Darlington Retail Park Brick Tr ain Senhouse Road Mor ton Rd Cummins jects, said the inspector’s main reason for dismissing its appeal was design reasons, partly because of the nearby listed buildings at Cummins.

He said: “We are trying to come to terms with the decision.

We will get back and talk with Darlington Borough Council in early February about resubmitting a planning application. We are hugely disappointed. We wanted to get onto the site and start building.”

The Torrington Engineering site, in Yarm Road, closed in 2003. Commercial Development Projects, based in West Yorkshire, bought the land and cleared the site, but its first planning application was rejected in January 2006.

Darlington Borough Council rejected its second application in March last year to protect the long-term viability of a “prestige employment” site.

The independent planning inspector upheld the council’s decision following a fourmonth appeal and ordered the developer to pay costs.

In his conclusion, he said the site would not lead to job losses or affect trade in the town centre, nor affect the council’s aims for high-quality jobs on the site.

He added, however: “I consider the detrimental impact the proposal would have on the character and appearance of the surrounding area, including the wider setting of the Grade II*-listed structures, to be the determining issue.”

Councillor Ian Haszeldine, whose ward covers the Torrington site, agreed with the verdict on the specific application, but was disappointed that no progress had been made to develop the land.