NEARLY 100 walkers turned out this morning for a protest against plans to build a link road across a community woodland to the north of Darlington.

The town's MP Jenny Chapman joined the Barmpton and Skerningham Action Group for a three-mile ramble through the woods north of Barmpton Lane and Whinfield, which protesters argue would be decimated by the planned 'route B' for the A1-A66 northern link road.

There are two preferred routes - route A, which would skirt Brafferton Village, or route B, which would run just north of Barmpton Lane, close to Skerningham Manor and then cross over the A167.

The Tees Valley Combined Authority is currently considering the best route and is expected to announce within a month where the bypass will be built.

There are also early proposals to build 4,500 homes as part of a 'garden village' scheme, in and around the deserted medieval village once known as Skerningham, near Barmpton.

But an area of land was donated to local residents as community woodland, and the road would decimate the area, run very close to the earthworks of the medieval village, and near several grave sites.

Action group chairman Bev Hutchinson organised the walk and said: "Thinking we can stop a road going in altogether is a pipe dream. What we need to do is make sure that we have a lot of say about where this road goes. This is our area of town and we have to take care of it and we need to protect the 1,200 acres of woodland and green space up here."