LESS than two years after a fierce battle to stop a hostel for the homeless opening in Newton Aycliffe, the building is to be turned into a church centre.
Residents fought to stop Horndale House, in Burnhope, becoming a hostel because they feared it would be used to house criminals, alcoholics and drug addicts.
They lost their battle in September 1999. But the project soon floundered because of funding problems, and Horndale House has remained empty and unused since then.
Now the Christian Life Centre, in the town's Village Close, has been successful with its less controversial application to use the building for church- based activities and for residential Christian teaching for visitors both from Britain and across the world.
Sedgefield Borough Council's development control committee agreed to the scheme at a meeting on Friday, subject to ten additional parking spaces being provided in two years.
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