Village meeting shows little support for new homes

Families in Whorlton, near Barnard Castle, attended a public meeting on Wednesday evening when planning consultant Ted Jackson outlined plans to build between seven and 11 high-specification houses on two sites.

Mr Jackson was acting on behalf of John Richardson, a landowner who lives in Whorlton, which currently has about 35 homes.

The first site that Mr Richardson wants to build on is an area opposite The Bridge restaurant known as the paddock, where three detached houses would be constructed.

The village boundary would have to be extended for development to go ahead on the second site in the north of the village, where between four and eight houses would be built in an L-shaped terrace.

All the houses would be for sale on the private market for between £200,000 and £400,000.

More than 25 people attended the meeting in the village hall on Wednesday, where they posed questions about the type of house that would be built and the effect it would have on the village.

At the meeting, Mr Jackson said: "Effectively, Whorlton is finished in terms of what can be built here. It has existed like this for the past ten, 15 or 20 years.

"For anybody to built new houses, you would have to propose an expansion of the village limits."

Chairman of Whorlton and Westwick Parish Council, Coun George Stasny, asked people to give a show of hands if they were in support of development on either of the two sites.

Just two people supported the planned development on the paddock and nobody raised their hands in favour of building work on the site to the north of the village.

After the meeting, Coun Stasny said: "New planning regulations encourage applicants to get the support of the parish council before an application is submitted.

"We felt the whole village should be informed and consulted before we discussed it at the next parish council meeting on Tuesday.

"There was a mixture of views and I really don't know which way it will go."