A PARISH council has appealed to the Charity Commission to help it solve a land row.

Dene Valley Parish Council says that land in Auckland Park, where 40 houses are to be built, was left in trust to residents by the Miners' Welfare Commission.

The council has written to the Charity Commission to request that the authority be appointed as a trustee for the land known as the former Auckland Park and Black Boy Recreation Ground, near William Street.

But Hall Construction Services Limited from Rushyford says it has bought the land legally and the sale was approved by the land registry.

The company has planning permission to build 40 houses and provision has been made through an agreement with Wear Valley District Council for recreation facilities.

Managing director Stephen Hall, said: "We have bought the land in good faith. We are a local company and we are not trying to do anything underhand."

At a recent meeting of the parish council Councillor Chris Foote Wood told residents that a grant of £1,539 13s had been given on January 15, 1935, to purchase the land and lay out a play scheme.

He said that there had been two tennis courts, a pavilion and play equipment on the land and the scheme still exisited when the Coal Industry and Social Welfare Organisation took over from the Miners' Welfare Commission in 1952.

What has happened since then remains a mystery, but it is believed that the recreation ground fell into disrepair sometime in the 1960s.

Chairman of the parish council Councillor Dorothy Burn said it was vital that the situation was sorted out because the residents of Auckland Park had been left with nothing.

She said: "There is all this new build going on, but there is nothing for the residents of Auckland Park.

"This has been going on for years and it is the residents who are missing out."

Sarah Jane Digby, from the Charity Commission, confirmed that a letter had been received from the parish council.

She said: "The first step that needs to be taken is that we have to find the trustees who this land belongs to and take it from there."