A PARTY of councillors will visit Sunderland AFC's planned training academy to run the rule over one of the finer points of the proposals tomorrow.

Members of South Tyneside council's planning committee will assess the impact of mounds planned for either side of Dene Lane, which runs through the 65-acre site at Whitburn Moors Farm.

Sunderland AFC won approval for the proposed Academy of Light training complex from Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, earlier this year.

That followed a planning inquiry at South Shields Town Hall last year, called due to the weight of protest from residents of the surrounding villages of Cleadon, Boldon and Whitburn.

They were angry at the development being sited within the narrow green belt separating Sunderland and South Tyneside.

Concern has been expressed over the prominence of the Dene Lane mounds, which led to the club reducing the maximum proposed height by two metres from three-and-a-half metres.

Planning officer Debbie Cassidy said she does not believe that mounding of the height now proposed will prove "a significant physical feature" within the landscape.

She said that surrounding woodland and proposed landscaping work on the site would shield the mounds from view from nearby highways, Sunderland Road and Moor Lane.

The planning committee will rule on the mound proposal after tomorrow's site visit.