UP to £250,000 will be ploughed into the community if plans for a new housing development on the outskirts of Bishop Auckland are given the go ahead.

Developer Kenley Holdings wants to build up to 150 two, three and four bedroom homes, together with some affordable housing provision on land behind Escomb Primary School.

The application will go before Durham County Council’s planning committee next month.

If approval is granted, the developers say they will give Escomb Primary School £150,000 for a new nursery and £100,000 will be be paid into the Escomb Village Hall Fund.

In addition, a car park will be introduced to the north west of the site to provide additional parking facilities for the school and enhanced pedestrian links between the site and the school.

A public consultation event took place at St Mary’s Presbytery Church, in Bishop Auckland, last year with 112 residents completing a questionnaire

Developers Kenley Holdings believe issues relation to traffic congestion and overcrowding of the area have been addressed.

In a statement of community involvement submitted with the application, it states: “Through this pre-application process (with Durham County Council), the proposals have evolved, namely through alterations to reduce the scale of development, provision of additional landscaping and amendments to the vehicular access to the site.

“The proposals also now incorporate a parking area for use solely by Escomb Primary School and the layout provides improved pedestrian and cycle links to the school from the site and surrounding residential areas.”

In a statement, Kenley Holdings, which is based in Bishop Auckland, said: “We held a public consultation event and you have to be mindful of what the concerns are.

“We have tried to address as many as we can.

“We know the school wants to build a new nursery so hopefully this will help them and we think there might be plans to extend the village hall.

“We have seen what Jonathan Ruffer is doing at Auckland Castle and we are keen to see Bishop Auckland progress.”

Councillor Rob Yorke is in favour of the scheme and is pleased to see there will be funding for the Escomb community.

There have been a few objections submitted to planning officers from residents living nearby.

The application will be discussed by the planning committee at County Hall, in Durham, on Tuesday, June 6.