THE leader of a council which was condemned for making a string of errors over Darlington Football Club's £20m stadium has insisted that the authority had kept the Quakers in business.

A Local Government Ombudsman's report had suggested that Darlington Borough Council should have sought a High Court injunction to block the venue's opening.

The Reynolds Arena opened in August 2003, despite several conditions of the original planning agreement for the stadium having been breached.

A residents' parking scheme, subsidised bus service and improvements to the highways network around the Neasham Road ground should have been in place by the day of the first match.

In her report about the matter, ombudsman Patricia Thomas said failure to seek an injunction because of the breaches represented a case of maladministration.

However, council leader John Williams claimed the authority had taken the decision not to pursue legal action in the wider interests of the community.

Mrs Thomas's report said the council's approach 'had the effect of undermining the confidence of residents'.

But Coun Williams said: "If we had taken the legal action suggested by the ombudsman, Darlington would not have a football club now. If we had done that, we would have automatically put the football club out of business because it wouldn't have been able to fulfil its existing fixtures.

"All the football history of the town would have been consigned to the dustbin. The club would have gone under and been disqualified from the league and the vast majority of the Darlington community would have been deeply aggrieved at that."

The Quakers' dilapidated old Feethams home could not have been brought back into use as a last resort, Coun Williams said.

He also pointed to the authority's record, saying more than 20,000 planning applications had been processed over the past 25 years - and on only one other occasion had an ombudsman's ruling gone against the council.

Coun Williams said he accepted some of the ombudsman's findings and that action would be taken. The report will also be considered by a full council meeting at a later date.

He said he had no regrets about the council's decision to grant planning consent for the stadium - or to allow a 25,000 capacity.

"We had the clearest possible steering from (then Quakers chairman) George Reynolds that if that was not the capacity, he would walk away," he said.

The planning conditions not complied with were:

* Prior consent required before capacity is increased from 10,000.

* No increase of capacity above 10,000 without additional highway improvements.

* No part of the stadium to be brought into use until improvements to the A66 are completed and open to traffic.

* Landscaping scheme to be approved and implemented.

* Proposed means of enclosures to the site to be approved.