THE Society of Friends in Darlington has won a planning appeal for the provision of proper car parking at the back of its meeting house.

Last November, the council refused to grant planning permission for nine car parking spaces for occasional use at the rear of the meeting house in Skinnergate, despite the fact that cars had parked there for a number of years.

Planning officers cited a conflict with local plan policy governing non-operational town centre parking, while some councillors believed parked cars were too near historic Quaker graves.

The Friends lodged an appeal against the decision and following a site visit by the Planning Inspectorate on July 23, planning refusal was overturned last week.

However, in between the refusal of the application and the inspector's site visit, the Friends submitted evidence to the council proving the land in question had been used for occasional parking for the past ten years. This was accepted and the council granted a certificate of lawful use enabling the Friends to continue parking up to nine cars.

But as the certificate did not permit improvements to be made to the car park area or for its expansion, the Friends pressed ahead with the appeal.

The planning inspector concluded in his report that the proposed scheme did not conflict with policy as the principle of the lawful use of the site as a car park had been established. As a consequence of granting lawful use, planning permission was also not required.

He considered that the intensity of the use of the site would not be increased by any improvements made. In addition he felt that grass pavers and ground reinforcement would protect the grass surface from further damage and ensure that parking was restricted to designated areas.

Complaints of loss of security and amenity made by residents of Arcadia Court were also rejected.

Mrs Joyce Guthrie, co-clerk of the Darlington meeting of the Society of Friends, told the D&S Times: "We are all very pleased that the Planning Inspectorate has taken the sensible view.

"Anybody with any sense would see it was better to improve the car park area which in wet weather gets churned up into a quagmire.

"We have to carry out any work within five years but we do not know whether we need to go ahead with the expensive changes we had first proposed.

"We are delighted that we have the right to occasional parking in this area of the burial ground which is nowhere near any Quaker graves."

A spokesman for the council said: "We would not have known they had been using the land informally as a car park for that length of time."