I UNDERSTAND Durham County Council needs to replace old housing stock and subject to public consultation, as their replacements would be built on a brownfield site, I would not object.

However, in Spennymoor, where developers are building on greenfield land, I have concerns.

I objected in writing and met Durham County Council planning officers, about the loss of the Electrolux site, in low Spennymoor.

In my opinion, it should have been retained as industrial land. Instead, it was to accommodate an extra 425 houses and 500sq meters of retail space at a time when Spennymoor had 2,300 new houses in the planning pipeline.

I did point out that this would be classed as out-of-town shopping and hinder my regeneration plans for Festival Walk, which is the number one regeneration priority for Spennymoor. I also objected at the public consultation held in Spennymoor library.

I did, however, support houses on the Thorn site development at Merrington Lane, Spennymoor, otherwise, we would have lost 600 Thorn jobs.

The new state of the art factory is now operating at Green Lane, Spennymoor.

At that time, I represented the Spennymoor Division on Durham County Council.

Ben Ord, Liberal Democrat candidate, Spennymoor Division, Durham County Council