PLANS for 330 homes on the site of a former hotel look set to be approved by councillors when they meet next Wednesday (December 18).

Planning officers from Stockton Borough Council have recommended that the proposals for 330 family and executive homes on the former Tall Trees site in Yarm are approved.

Public open spaces, including football and cricket pitches, play areas, allotments and ponds are also proposed as part of the application by businessman Javed Majid.

About fifteen per cent of the homes will be devoted to affordable housing and the scheme would also include sustainable measures including triple glazed windows, energy efficient lighting, rainwater and grey water recovery and solar panels.

But, if approved, the homes would mean there are over 1,000 houses to be built on either side of Green Lane, in Yarm.

Campaign group Save Stockton South said the extra homes would put too much pressure on the roads around Yarm and expressed concerns that part of the development was over a high pressure gas main.

Objections were also received from local parish councils with High & Low Worsall Parish Council raising fears about the amount of developments being planned around Yarm and the pressure it would put on infrastructure, in particular the roads.

Kirklevington and Castle Leavington Parish Council also objected, saying: “The developer of the Tall Trees has stated... that the change from the previously approved mix of housing and a hotel to the currently proposed 330 houses will have very little effect upon the traffic along Green Lane.

'If the statement is viewed as accurate by Stockton Borough Council how have the figures been arrived at?”

Councillor Maureen Rigg, who represents Eaglescliffe on Stockton Borough Council, also registered an objection.

She questioned the accuracy of traffic surveys, which showed little impact from the homes, and said: “The junctions and Yarm High Street cannot cope with further increases according to Stockton’s own traffic model commissioned last year."

There were also 54 objections received from residents in Yarm, Eaglescliffe and Ingleby Barwick.

Over 2,000 homes have been approved recently in the Stockton South area, including 370 off Green Lane, by Yarm rail station, 350 at Morley Carr Farm, almost opposite, and a “retirement village” at Leven Bank, which includes 350 houses and a 100-bedroom home.

More than 1,000 homes will be built at sites in Eaglescliffe, including 850 at Allens West.

Residents are concerned that schools, health centres, and roads will struggle to cope with all the new homes, and that flooding, noise and air pollution will worsen.

But Stockton Borough Council claims it has a shortage in the five-year housing supply that is required by central government, and needs to approve homes to meet the shortfall.