£170m development to create 2,000 jobs

Developers are hailing the Darlington scheme -the biggest in a generation -as central to plans to bring prosperity to Tees Valley.

It is hoped the thousands of square feet of office space and 600 homes on the site near the Bank Top railway station will make Darlington an attractive location for some of the 20,000 civil service jobs that will be moved out of London.

The 75-acre site, that will be called Central Park, is adjacent to the railway line and links the town's Haughton Road with Yarm Road. It will be the first sight visitors to the town will see when they get off the train at the station.

Part of the site has already been set aside for the new campus for Darlington College of Technology. Work will start there in December for completion by September 2006.

The rest of the site is expected to have 300,000sq ft of offices, hotel and conference centre, multi-storey car parks, restaurants, town houses and apartments, a sports centre and creche.

It is a key site in the ongoing revamp of the Tees Valley area and will provide a "gateway" to the rest of Teesside.

A sculpture park will be created near the railway line and a footbridge will link the town centre with the site.

Central Park is being timed to link in with other large developments in Darlington, including West Park, in Faverdale, and Morton Palms, on the Yarm side of the town.

Darlington Partnership chairman Alasdair MacConachie, said the development should make the town a front-runner for a share of 20,000 civil service jobs being moved out of London.

A report earlier this year by Sir Michael Lyons gave North-East towns fresh hope of securing employment.

It said towns submitting strong cases would be considered for civil service jobs, despite a previous report from consultants King Sturge recommending only Newcastle as a suitable candidate.

Mr MacConachie said: "I would hope that the appropriate authorities will take due notice of the confidence there now is in Darlington and give us a chance.

"Any civil service department coming to Darlington would surely appreciate its qualities. It has a lot more going for it than some miscellaneous suburb of Newcastle."

Darlington Borough Council leader John Williams said: "At a time when so many projects in Darlington are coming to fruition -regenerating the town, creating jobs and prosperity -the quality of the Haughton Road scheme will see it stand comparison with the best in the region."

It is hoped the combination of Darlington's new developments, as well as Middlehaven and North Bank, in Teesside, will provide a lure for a government department.

Tees Valley Partnership chairman Alistair Arkley said last night: "I would have thought this could be a site ideal for the relocation of a government office because it has excellent access by rail to other major cities in the North, and is only a couple of hours from Whitehall itself. It is close to the mainline and this gives us a major advantage."

Tees Valley Regeneration (TVR), which will launch the project today, is consulting the public to see what it wants on the site.

TVR strategic investment director Neil Etherington said: "This masterplan we are launching is really the minimum we want to see on the site. We really hope people will come forward with ideas, whether it be for a Victorian Park or a community farm there."

Darlington MP Alan Milburn said: "This is a hugely exciting new development for the economic growth of the town."

Mr Etherington added: "We want the architecture to be imaginative, at the forefront of design, but also in keeping with the surroundings.

"We want the whole area to have a townscape feel rather than a business park.

"We will have 800 metres of frontage that creates a great first impression of Darlington, Teesside and the North-East.

"Everyone that is travelling on the train here is a potential investor."

Development agency One NorthEast has invested £2m buying land on the site, and acquisition will continue.

Gateway to prosperity - Page 4