HOMES will rise from the ashes of an auction mart forced out of business by the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Full planning permission has been given to Bellway Homes (NE) Limited to build 14 detached houses and nine flats on land once occupied by Bishop Auckland Mart, in South Church Road.

What is left of the derelict buildings will now be replaced by the two-bedroomed flats, three three-bedroomed houses and 11 four-bedroomed properties.

Outline permission was originally granted to Darlington Farmers' Auction Mart, which owns the site, last year after it was accepted that it would no longer be viable to resurrect the business, which stopped its weekly Wednesday sales at the start of the foot-and-mouth crisis in 2001.

The crisis was the final straw for the owners, who blamed a combination of reasons, including shoppers switching from local butchers to supermarket meat, and new laws on cattle movement following the epidemic.

At the time, a spokesperson said: "It wasn't viable to restart operations at Bishop Auckland after foot-and-mouth.

"Our trade was mostly sheep and cattle sold for their meat. It was already declining before foot-and-mouth."

Work is to start on the site in the near future.