HINDSIGHT is a wonderful thing. And whether it was right to allow a 25,000-seater football stadium to be built on the outskirts of Darlington will be the subject of intense debate for years to come.

The majority take the view that it was a flawed decision given the fact that more than 20,000 of those seats are hardly ever filled.

At the time, we supported the building of the stadium on condition that the concerns of local residents were taken into account.

In the judgement of the Local Government Ombudsman, who has found the council guilty of maladministration, that was not the case.

The stadium was allowed to open even though planning conditions, built into a legally-binding agreement, were breached.

Once the council had granted permission for the Neasham Road site, it was heading for a Catch 22 situation. If it had blocked the opening of the stadium, it would have been accused of threatening the future of the football club. By allowing it to open on time, it incurred the wrath of local residents and ultimately the criticism of the Ombudsman.

At the time planning permission was granted, George Reynolds was being widely welcomed as the saviour of a club which had no other apparent source of survival.

By the time the new stadium opened, Mr Reynolds had become an unmanageable problem for the council, and the saving of Darlington Football Club descended into an unhappy mess.

We are not without some sympathy for Darlington Borough Council. In many ways, it couldn't win. But the bottom line is that promises were not kept so how can future planning agreements be trusted?

We believe that if the clock could be turned back, George Reynolds would have steered clear of involvement with Darlington Football Club, and Darlington Borough Council would have refused planning permission for his dream which turned into a nightmare.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.