HOUSES could be built on an auction mart site which closed after the foot-and- mouth crisis hit Wear Valley.

Bishop Auckland Auction Mart ceased trading in 2001 as the foot and mouth epidemic tightened its grip on the region.

The crisis and a change in livestock laws meant it was no longer possible to hold the mart's weekly Wednesday sales and the site never re-opened.

Outline planning permission has since been given to demolish the buildings on the site to make way for housing.

But Darlington Farmers Auction Mart, which owns the site, has filed a further application to make minor alterations.

Members of Wear Valley District Council's development control committee are expected to give the alterations the go-ahead when they meet tomorrow at 6pm.

DFAM chairman John Walton said the mart had not been in operation for the past five years for a combination of reasons and as soon as planning permission was given the site would go on the open market.

He said: "It is not viable to run the mart anymore. There are other marts in the area and there have been a lot of changes in the handling of livestock. But the foot and mouth crisis was the final nail in the coffin.

"We will market the site along with planning permission to develop it." The amendments will see the site slightly reduced in size bto omit an area of landscaping which was in the original plans.

Planning officers at Wear Valley District Council said the amendments would have very little effect on the development and could see no reasons why they could not be approved. A spokesman for Wear Valley District Council said: "The alterations will result in a slight decrease in the size of the proposed site.

"This will have very little impact on the internal layout of the scheme and have no material impact on the council's original decision to grant outline planning permission."