ANGRY residents and councillors have challenged Darlington Council cabinet’s decision to provisionally allocate land for retirement apartments at Blackwell Grange.

The cabinet approved the potential building of up to 98 retirement apartments on historic parkland in Blackwell in early November, angering Conservative councillors who believe the matter should have gone before a scrutiny committee first.

Councillors Steve York, Richard Grundy and Bob Donoghue used the calling in process to challenge the cabinet’s decision and asked for external consultees to present the evidence used to justify considering Blackwell as a site for retirement apartments.

Speaking at a recent scrutiny committee meeting, Blackwell resident Bill Paton said that there were already up to 300 empty flats in Darlington and that developers no longer wanted to build apartments in the borough because there was no profit to be made from them.

He said that residents had been "dismayed" by the council’s consultation process, arguing that when the proposals were first mooted, there was to be just 26 executive houses built at Blackwell, but the addition of the retirement apartments has increased this number to more than 120 dwellings.

Mr Paton’s views were echoed by fellow Blackwell resident Barrington Wearmouth and ward councillor Heather Scott who pointed out that developers already had planning permission in place for apartments in the West End area, including at the former Arts Centre.

Cllr Scott added: “One report said that it was important that we don’t flood the market with this type of permission and I would say that in the West End we are flooding the market.”

Chair of the meeting, Cllr Bob Carson, apologised for the absence of an estate agent’s representative who was due to attend the meeting to explain the market conditions but had pulled out at short notice.

However, Cllr Paul Baldwin said that the matter was part of a much wider issue and that Darlington should be sending a message to developers that it was ‘open for business’.

He said: “We are having to sell that land to build on it because we are being short-changed by the government by £35million.”

John Anderson, the council’s assistant director for economic initiative, said that the council’s cabinet had only agreed to consider the land for retirement apartments and that nothing definite had been decided.

He said: “The key test here is not the market, but would apartments work here, and we have not got to the point of saying yes or no to that.”

He added: “For me the key issue here is can the site, given all its sensitivities, cope with a development that is most suitable for retirement housing.

“I don’t know, I think it could, but we need to go on and test that and that is what cabinet have agreed to do.”

Cllr Carson, concluded the meeting by endorsing the call in statement that the cabinet should always be fully informed before making its decisions.