A FORMAL objection has been lodged over plans to restrict the number of houses which can be built in Durham City over the next 15 years.

The city council is fighting plans outlined in the draft Regional Spatial Strategy - the document being prepared by the North-East Assembly to determine future planning guidelines for the region.

The draft strategy - View: Shaping The North East - suggests that just under 1,100 new homes should be built each year in County Durham until 2021, which the council says threatens to restrict growth and has placed the city at loggerheads with neighbouring authorities.

The draft is at a consultation stage, with a series of events planned in coming weeks, but once adopted will be legally binding on all local authorities across the region.

However, Durham City Council claims proposals to restrict housing and population growth will cause long-term damage to the local economy by channelling future economic and population growth into Tyneside and Wearside.

Durham City Council leader Fraser Reynolds said: "We are all too familiar with the planning policies of the 1970s, which saw many of our mining villages disappear. Since then we have made huge strides in regenerating our communities, but there is still much work to be done in creating jobs and better living environments.

"This strategy, if approved, would prevent us from achieving that and is therefore quite unacceptable".

Tony Armstrong, head of regeneration with Durham City Council, said that while there was much to commend in the strategy, it would, as it stood, lead to a long-term fall in the population of the city.

He added: "I am sure that all our communities would wish us to object to proposals, which would lead to a gradual decline in their wellbeing.

"The region needs to maximise its opportunities for economic growth and we believe that Durham, which the document calls 'one of its major assets' can play a very active role in bringing that about. The current policies will frustrate such efforts."

However, the assembly said that issues such as those raised by the city council were those which the consultation process was designed to resolve.

Assistant director Malcolm Bowes said: "The scale and distribution of housing is one of the most contentious issues in the View: Shaping the North-East document.

"We will carefully consider the views of the local authorities, and indeed members of the public across the region, before we submit a finalised version of it to the Secretary of State in March."

Consultation on the strategy lasts until February 4, with a public meeting on the issue in Durham's County Hall at 6pm this Thursday.