IF ever evidence was needed that former industrial sites can be transformed into wildlife havens, a stroll round West Park should suffice.

The site, in West Auckland Road, Darlington, was once home to the Darchem factory.

When the plant closed, many people viewed it purely as a contaminated legacy of the asbestos processes carried out on the site.

Yet today, it is home to a growing variety of wildlife. Darlington developer Bussey and Armstrong Projects Limited took over the site five years ago.

The transformation is due to the company's commitment to create a mixed-use area that includes 700 houses, built by Bussey and Armstrong and partner Bellway, a hospital unit and a school, alongside a public park and wildlife areas.

And now the park has been handed over to Darlington Borough Council, which is pressing ahead with plans to officially designate it as a local nature reserve.

Bussey and Armstrong took over a site that had housed factory units and tipping areas and created gently undulating hilly areas using spoil from the area. Much of the woodland along the West Beck running through the site has been retained and enhanced to encourage the water voles which already lived there.

Ponds and watercourses have been created - also designed to be vole-friendly.

In addition, 46,000 native trees have been planted on the 33-acre site and a clover meadow has been created.

Tony Cooper, a director of Bussey and Armstrong Projects Limited, said: "When we took over the site in 2000, there was a public perception that it was contaminated, which was not the case - but what we did have was a moonscape.

"The brief was to make the development as natural as we could. The Victorians would never have embarked on a housing development without a park, and we have done the same.

"We have done these things because it is good practice and it makes the area better. We hope it sets an example to other developers."

Bussey and Armstrong has worked with organisations that include the Environment Agency and Darlington Borough Council to ensure that wildlife benefits from the project.

The approach has not involved massive extra investment, but rather a more considered use of the elements of the development.

A good example are the drainage ponds, which have been designed to look attractive, with reed beds and other planting, which also provides a home for wildlife.

Rob George, the council's principal countryside officer, said: "They fulfil an engineering and drainage function, but also have a biodiversity purpose. It is a good example of sustainable drainage.

"We were anxious that the mistakes made with other urban watercourses were not made here, so that you did not get a smelly drainage ditch or something that had been channelled or culverted. What you have at West Park is much better for creatures like water voles."

Already, the signs of success are there for a site which was already home to a host of other wildlife, including reportedly dingy skipper butterfly, a relative rarity in the North.

Mr George said: "The wildlife is starting to come back as the creatures recolonise the site.

"The skylarks are back with a vengeance and, as the woodland matures, songbirds will also colonise it.

"We hope that people will also come to the site and start to discover what it has to offer."

Published: 02/08/2005