A MULTI-MILLION pound project to build a new town hall, supermarket and housing in Darlington town centre was announced this week.

Council chiefs are in talks with Tesco about demolishing the town hall and re-developing the eight- acre Feethams site which includes the former bus station and Beaumont street car park.

But the council announcement appeared to take Tesco by surprise.

"It will be months and months before we are close to commenting on it," said a spokesman, who said at such a delicate stage anything could put a deal at risk.

John Buxton, the council's director of development and environment, said there were many stages to go through before the development could be considered probable rather than possible.

"First of all, Tesco has got to decide that it definitely wants to do it. We as a council have got to decide in principle if we want to go ahead.

"There have got to be planning approvals. There's a long way to go and a lot will change. Neither ourselves nor Tesco are committed to the development."

Mr Buxton said the plan would see the present town hall, opened by Princess Anne in 1970 and home to 450 council workers, demolished.

"The fact is, it's not big enough and it's not flexible enough. Tesco would probably build another one. In terms of design, we have just told them our requirements."

He believed the replacement would cost at least £10m, and moving the bus station - now a garage leased by the council to Arriva - would cost several million more.

The development would utilise a prime town centre site, which had been neglected, and create housing in the town centre which would be good for business.

"We are positive about the fact that Tesco thinks it is worthwhile doing this type of development and that they are prepared to spend the time and money putting proposals together for us to consider," he said.

Three years ago, plans for a leisure complex, including a multi-screen cinema, on the bus station site fell through.

In 2002, developer Terrace Hill obtained planning permission to build an office block on the opposite side of the road, but later sold its land to Knightsbridge-based Raven Newport Ltd. The rest of the site is owned by the council, which could either sell its land to Tesco or grant it a long lease.

John Williams, council leader, said discussions were at a very early stage. "But Tesco's approach once again underlines the amount of interest there is from major developers in Darlington town centre," he said.

Coun Tony Richmond, Conservative group leader, said it was a potentially exciting development. "But it has a long, long way to go before it sees the light of day," he said,

"We've already had proposed development for that site and nothing happened."

"Now that we are a unitary authority the town hall isn't big enough and the bus station is an eyesore. It is proper that we should do everything we can to develop that site."

Robin Blair, vice-chairman of Darlington Market Traders' Association, said: "To get rid of the town hall would be a good thing. It's a monstrosity."

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