FEARS have been raised that residents could be left to pick up the bills if a controversial housing development on a flood plain causes their homes to be flooded.

The Environment Agency has told MEP Fiona Hall it is not clear who would be legally responsible if houses in Hurworth Place, near Darlington, become flooded after properties are built at Croft House.

Ms Hall again called upon developer Yuill Homes to come up with a plan based on up-to-date flooding data, instead of using figures calculated in 2007.

Outline planning permission to build two detached houses and 13 town houses on the Tees Way site was passed in 2007, a year before the Environment Agency re-classified the site as the highest level of flood risk.

As permission was granted before the new data became available, the developer is not legally obliged to use the new figures.

Since then details of the planning permission concerning scale, appearance and landscaping have been agreed, but the other details remain outstanding. Work cannot begin until all details are agreed.

Residents have campaigned against the development, saying their homes will be at risk of flooding if the development is built.

Ms Hall has taken up the case for the residents, petitioning the Environment Agency and Darlington Borough Council, the body which granted the planning permission, to intervene.

In the letter to Ms Hall, David Dangerfield, NorthEast director of the Environment Agency, said: "With reference to your question about responsibility for any damage to existing properties if flooding were to occur. We agree with Darlington Borough Council's opinion that it is not clear which, if any, party would be held responsible.

"We think it is for this reason that the council have suggested that the residents take their own legal advice and we agree with this approach."

Ms Hall said: "Local residents are being sold down the river. The latest study shows that pushing ahead with this development will result in a serious risk of flooding and now local people are being told theymay be liable for any damage suffered.

"That cannot be right.

"I am calling on the builder to do the right thing - go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan based on the latest flood model.

"It is crazy for them to press on when the resulting risk to existing properties is so high."

Councillor Martin Swainston said residents were hugely worried about the situation, adding: "It is going to impact very seriously on people's lives and properties.

"A house is the single most important purchase you will make in your life. This has been going on for seven years.

It is a terrifying prospect for people. It makes me ashamed to be a member of Darlington Borough Council."

Darlington Borough Council and Yuill Homes declined to comment.