CAMPAIGNERS have won a battle over plans to demolish two executive homes and replace them with flats.

Residents living around The Avenue, in Eaglescliffe, persuaded Stockton borough councillors that the controversial development was unsuitable for the private, narrow lane.

The proposal, by developer McCarthy and Stone, was defeated by six votes to four on Wednesday, after months of campaigning by residents.

Last night, locals praised councillors for opposing the scheme and said they hoped their victory would give other people faith to put up a fight.

Resident Win Campbell said: "It was absolutely amazing - we were all gobsmacked.

"It was really the presentation resident Vicky Thompson put forward that did it for us. Up to that point, I think they had written us off as the normal hysterical objectors, but we went for every legal angle."

However, she said, the clinching point was Councillor Maureen Rigg speaking against the development.

"We never really knew which way Councillor Rigg would go but, as she said, maybe Stockton does need developments like this, but it was the wrong location," she said.

McCarthy and Stone had hoped to build two blocks of luxury apartments for the over-55s on two large plots in the road.

The firm wanted to buy two properties for more than £500,000 each in order to have the land to build on.

But residents feared the road would be unable to cope with the additional traffic, which is already busy with parents and teachers travelling to Teesside High School, so they formed the Eaglescliffe Preservation Action Group and began to fight.

Last night, Coun Rigg said she appreciated that the town needed such accommodation, which had good links to public transport and amenities, but felt this proposal was notthe right one.

"It was too big and it was too near to that junction and I felt there would be problems with traffic," she said.

"Nothing that I heard from the developers or any of the Stockton officers convinced me that actually we could have something like that there."

Resident Lesley Roberts said she believed the developers would appeal, but said: "We will fight it all the way."