I AM writing to thank all those who came to our consultation event at Bowburn Community Centre to hear about our plans to transform the 73 hectares of land just to the south of Bowburn at J61/A1.

We were delighted to see that the majority of residents who came welcomed the scheme, particularly the 4,500 jobs that could be created by the mixed use development, which includes industrial and distribution units, serviced office space, small retail units, a gym, hotel, nursery and new homes.

Importantly, the consultation allowed us to hear residents’ understandable concerns over the plans about the impact on Bowburn and we want to reassure them that over the coming weeks we will be taking on board the feedback we have received before the plans are worked up in more detail and an application is submitted later this year. Interested parties still have a chance to send us their comments until July 31 via our website, www.integra61.info.

We’ll be keeping the website updated with progress and highlighting the changes we make in response to the very valuable feedback from the local community.

We are committed to bringing this exciting project to fruition and we believe that it will be of benefit, not only for the residents of Bowburn, but for the North East as a whole.

David Cullingford, Development manager, Citrus Durham.