A COUNCILLOR has welcomed housing plans for a former railway town and believes more developments should follow to help its regeneration.

Sedgefield Borough Council has granted outline planning permission for six semi-detached houses and eight detached homes to be built on the outskirts of Shildon, County Durham, next to a care home.

The site of the proposed homes lies to the west of Shildon Grange residential home.

The plans incorporate a single garage and a hard-standing area for each home.

Earlier this year, Shildon Town Council expressed a need for more housing in the town, to encourage people to remain in the area after they had outgrown their old homes, many of which are banded A for council tax.

Councillor Tony Moore, who sits on Sedgefield borough and Durham county councils, believes development like the one submitted for approval, which has been proposed by a couple from the nearby village of Heighington, is a good start.

He said: "I think it's places like Shildon that need the new housing developments as far as I'm concerned - not places like Newton Aycliffe. Aycliffe is big enough.

"I believe new estates, quality housing, will lift the likes of Shildon and other ex-pit villages. I think it is time we lifted these old, established communities with good housing."