KILLER Albert Dryden is making another move towards freedom, 12 years after he gunned down a council officer in a planning row.

Derwentside District Council planning officer Harry Collinson was shot at point blank range when council officers moved in to demolish Dryden's illegally-built bungalow in 1991.

Now, after serving 11 years of his life sentence for murder, Dryden is making a second bid for parole.

Tragedy struck in June 1991. After years of fruitless negotiations with Dryden, district council managers sent in bulldozers to flatten his property at Butsfield, near Consett.

The former steelworker responded by shooting dead Mr Collinson, 46, and injuring a policeman and a news reporter.

Mr Collinson's brother, Roy, of Stocksfield, Northumberland, reacted angrily to the parole move. "Albert Dryden should have been hanged," he said. "Failing that, he should stay behind bars forever."

Two years ago, Dryden's first parole hearing was refused, when it was felt he showed little evidence of remorse.

At a second hearing later this month, parole board officials will decide if they should reduce him from a Category A prisoner to a Category B. This would see him moved to an open prison and eventually released.

"This is just one step away from a holiday camp," said Roy Collinson. "Everyone seems to have forgotten that Albert Dryden cold-bloodedly killed my brother, for no other reason than for not getting his own way.

"When he gets out he will come back to Consett and those who support him will rally round and make him some sort of hero."

Dryden shot the planning officer twice in the chest and once in the head while he lay on the ground.

The tragedy was seen by millions after being captured by a BBC TV crew and a photographer from The Northern Echo.

Dryden was jailed for life at Newcastle Crown Court in 1992 and is currently serving his sentence at Rye Hill prison in Warwickshire.

Long-time friends, father and son John and Justin Snowdon, of Satley, near Consett, said it was time he was released.

Justin, 34, a haulage contractor, said: "He deserves a second chance.

"He was obviously disturbed on the day it all happened but he was pushed by the council. He's served enough now and I only hope he gets parole."