THE site of a controversial housing development in a conservation area is to be visited by councillors before they make a decision on whether to approve it.

Sedgefield Borough Council is considering an application for planning permission to build four homes next to Rectory Row, in Sedgefield, the site of a former county council depot.

People living in Rectory Row are opposing the developing, arguing that the site is inappropriate for housing.

At the council's development control committee last Friday, Cheryl Collins, who organised a protest meeting against the plan, said proposals for a shared access between the houses and Sedgefield Primary School would increase the chances of an accident.

The council's principal development control officer, Charlie Walton, said six objections had been received, but Sedgefield Civic Trust and English Heritage had raised no objections, which was an "important endorsement".

No decision will be made until members of the council's development control committee have viewed the site.