PLANS for a £170m development that could create more than 2,000 jobs in the region are expected to take a major step forward next week.

The Central Park regeneration project, the biggest in Darlington for decades, is seen as one of the most important elements in the future prosperity of the Tees Valley.

Civic leaders meeting in the town on Wednesday are likely to signal their approval for the long-awaited scheme to revamp the Haughton Road area.

Darlington Borough Council's planning committee will consider a detailed application from Tees Valley Regeneration (TVR) for outline permission to develop the 75-acre site.

An officers' report, which reveals the full scale of the development, is urging councillors to give it their backing.

Under the proposals, there would be:

* 600 new homes, with 15 per cent of them "affordable housing".

* 28,000sq ft of office space.

* A hotel and conference centre.

* New parks, public squares and playgrounds.

* Shops, restaurants, pubs and cafes.

*l A health centre.

* New pedestrian, vehicle and cycle links -including a footbridge connecting Central Park site to the railway station.

Work on a new £34.5m Darlington College of Technology campus has already begun.

If final approval is granted, the first phase of work would be carried out from 2007 to 2012, with the hotel and conference centre, a multi-storey car park and 274 houses built.

The overall project would be completed in two further phases by 2017 and, together with the Middlehaven and North Bank developments in Teesside, business chiefs hope it will create a major economic boost for the region.

Darlington Borough Council leader John Williams said: "The imaginative mix of housing, shops, offices and leisure facilities will attract people to Darlington and help to revitalise our town centre.

"Add to that the new college and it is easy to see why this development is so attractive to businesses and families looking to relocate in the North-East."

No major objections have been received, although English Heritage is monitoring the impact on nearby St John's Church, and English Nature wants surveys to check for bat roosts in the area.

A survey of nearly 1,500 residents was carried out before the application was submitted.

Two letters of complaint were received, pointing out that Bannatyne Fitness had previously been refused permission for a major leisure scheme -including a hotel -in the same area.

The officers' report said that, despite the development being a departure from the Darlington local plan, it should be supported.

If it is, the application will be referred to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's office for final approval.