Protest over Shotley Bridge cricket club’s housing plan

Apr 22 2009 by Neil McKay, The Journal

GREEN campaigners are preparing to fight plans for a housing estate on a cricket club’s land. Shotley Bridge Cricket Club wants to create a new pitch and pavilion with better facilities by letting a developer build 25 detached homes and 60 flats on its site.

But local people are preparing a battle against the proposals, which they say would destroy an important green area and harm wildlife.

Councillors at the now-defunct Derwentside District Council decided they were “minded to grant” planning permission for the development at Spa Well Meadows at a meeting last month, going against officers’ recommendations to throw it out.

Because the application rubs up against several regional planning policies, it has now been referred to Government Office North East (GONE) for assessment.

Now protesters are asking as many people as possible to lodge objections with the Durham County Council at the Civic Centre in Consett before the deadline tomorrow.

Organisations including the Durham Bat Group, the Derwent Valley Protection Society, the Environment Agency and the Campaign to Protect Rural England have already lodged objections.

Botanist David Bellamy is also said to be supporting the cause.