REDEVELOPMENT of the former Consett steelworks site is set to take another step forward, with a plan for 60 houses.

Derwentside District Council has given Project Genesis planning permission for building on 5.2 acres of the 700-acre site, near Fell View, The Grove. The houses will be built by Bowey Homes.

Council leader Alex Watson welcomed the decision and said the scheme was another advance in the redevelopment of 350 acres of the site, which is already home to businesses which provide up to 2,000 jobs.

There are also plans for a new leisure centre and a restaurant/hotel and work is to start on them in the near future.

Councillor Watson said: "There has already been £57m invested in the site, and this will add to that development. Of course, we still have the ski slope to come and there are areas earmarked for leisure.

"We'll never develop the whole site, because maybe half of it is there purely for informal recreation.

"It is really starting to roll and gain momentum. There is a host of other developments possibly in the pipeline that we are in talks about."

Coun Watson said the latest development was further proof that Consett was becoming an attractive place to live and would help continue to reverse the trend of population decline in the wake of the loss of heavy industry.

"We lost more than 20,000 people, but people are moving in. The whole population of Derwentside fell to 83,000, but now it is back up to 87,000 and growing all the time.''

He said the council had decided not to attract polluting industries to the area and to work on improving the environment.

"Now it is a beautiful area. We have got everything, the reservoir, outdoor pursuits - our starting point is health and the environment. That is the vision for the future and it is becoming a reality.''