VILLAGERS have vowed to maintain their opposition to a proposed housing scheme which would increase the size of their community by a third.

West Rainton Housing Action Group issued the statement after discovering that developer George Wimpey UK Ltd had withdrawn an appeal against refusal of planning permission by Durham City Council for 193 homes in the village.

But a more recent application, to build 308 houses on the site, farm fields on the edge of the village, remains on the table.

News of the decision to abandon the appeal was the latest twist in a saga going back to the early 1990s when the company won planning consent for 150 houses on the site, provided it built a bypass.

That scheme never got off the ground, but the company's more recent applications came with a guarantee that Wimpey would carry out work to add traffic lights to improve safety at the nearby A690 junction at Rainton Gate.

The junction would be used by people from the new estate.

Action group member Peter Baker said: "Although this appeal will not go ahead, our campaign continues.

"At Easter, Wimpey submitted this other plan, this time to build 308 dwellings on the same site.

"We feel that Wimpey was hoping that this new application would have been decided by the council before the appeal, in which case the planning inspector would probably have dealt with both applications."

The inquiry was originally scheduled for last December but Wimpey requested a delay and the new date was set for October this year.

Action group secretary Lesley King said the developments had become "quite incredible".

She called for a toughening up of planning legislation instead of a of relaxing planning laws.

But she vowed that local people would not become "worn down" by the continuing cycle of applications for the site.

No date has been set for the application for the 308 houses to be heard by the city council.

Before it can go before members of the council's development control committee, Wimpey must update a traffic assessment of the effect that the proposed new houses would have on the local road network.