DEVELOPERS behind Darlington's £60m West Park community village have hit back at criticism of new street names.

References to a famous 18th Century farming family has angered Archdeacon Newton parish council because it says the place where the street signs are sited has no connection with the people concerned.

The two inscriptions in question refer to the Colling brothers, who reared the first Shorthorn cattle, and their father.

But none of them lived at West Park, nor was there a family farm in the area.

Parish council chairman Norman Welch said there should be greater consultation with local people on the naming of roads.

"I am very worried about this. We certainly won't let this rest," he said.

"We want consultation with local people - not builders who only have a vague notion of the history of the place."

But Tony Cooper, of developers Bussey and Armstrong, rejected the criticism, saying: "We are trying to be imaginative and creative here.

"The Collings were part of the agricultural revolution and we are also featuring famous names from the industrial era."

He added that the Colling name was part of a sequence of street names with historic local links.

"This criticism is nonsense and I am sick of people being negative," he said.

A spokesman for Darlington Borough Council said developers put proposals to the authority, which checked for possible duplication with street names elsewhere and with Royal Mail.

"The time schedule for this is tight, but we are aiming to build in a consultation process so that parish and town councils can have some input," he said.