OBJECTORS to a £45m academy and sports centre have vowed to fight on – despite having their bid to have the land registered as a village green rejected.
Durham County Council said plans for the development of a new academy and leisure centre in Consett will move forward after the decision by its Highways Committee on a village green application aimed at stopping any building on the land.
The application related to part of the land at Belle Vue on which the new academy and sports centre are proposed and has already been considered by an independent inspector.
In his report, the inspector concluded that the evidence provided by the applicant, the Consett Green Spaces Group, was not sufficient to prove that the land should be registered as a village green.
The academy and leisure centre already has outline planning permission. An application to clear the reserved matter was submitted in November 2012 and will be considered by the council’s planning committee next week.
The plans include the demolition of the current leisure centre in Ashdale Road and Consett Football Club’s stadium next door.
Coun Claire Vasey, Cabinet member for children and young people’s services at Durham County Council, who attended yesterday’s committee meeting, said: “This has been a significant and long-running issue and I welcome today’s decision.” A new academy in nearby Stanley, formed by the merger of two of the town’s schools, is due to open in September.
Coun Vasey said: “Had it not been for the delays caused by this village green challenge then the campus at Consett would have been scheduled for completion only 12 weeks after Stanley.”
Instead 1,600 Consett Academy pupils will have to continue to attend school on split sites at Blackfyne and Moorside for at least two more years.
The county council said yesterday it hopes the Consett campus will be completed in early 2015.
It is planned to relocate the football club to a new all-weather pitch at Crookhall.
But Independent county councillor Owen Temple, a member of the Consett Green Spaces Group, who urged the committee “not to snuff out Consett’s own Town Moor”, said the group was considering a legal challenge.
Coun Temple claims documents dating back more than 70 years can be used to strengthen the case for village green status on part of the land earmarked for the new academy. A legal challenge could delay building of the campus further.
