MILLIONAIRE entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne has launched fresh criticism of a town's planners, saying their lack of vision is preventing an influx of jobs.

Mr Bannatyne, whose fitness chain headquarters is in Darlington, has repeatedly seen efforts to develop a prime area of land for leisure use turned down by the local authority.

Earlier this year, his Bannatyne Fitness company had an attempt to establish a 60-bed hotel, casino and 1,000-seat bingo hall in Haughton Road rejected by councillors.

The proposals would have created 180 jobs, but borough council planning chiefs ruled that trade would have been taken from the town centre.

The land in question, near the Bannatyne Fitness Club, is marked for industrial use in local plans.

Mr Bannatyne has appealed to the Government, and an inspector's verdict is awaited.

Meanwhile, he is pressing ahead with the opening of a £5m casino and a Moroccan-style bar in Newcastle.

He told The Northern Echo: "We will continue opening new ventures and creating jobs in parts of the country where the planners are sensible.

"I think the planners and councillors have an amazing and incredible lack of ability in Darlington to assess viability.

"They keep going on about projects that are not viable for any sort of employment use."

Mr Bannatyne, who collected an OBE on Tuesday for services to business and charity, has criticised the council in the past.

He said the land, on a key route into Darlington, would remain an undeveloped eyesore if the authority continued to reject such schemes.

However, the council said its efforts to regenerate Darlington were thriving, particularly in marketing the town as the gateway to the Tees Valley.

A spokesman said: "Our gateway scheme, where we have Morton Palms, the Central Park development and West Park, has widely been described as visionary.

"It will create thousands of new jobs and bring millions of pounds worth of new investment to Darlington."