COUNCILLORS have warned it might be time to "put the brakes on" development in a village after the build of yet more homes was approved.

Darlington Borough Council's planning committee has approved the build 44 new houses on land to the south of Yarm Road in Middleton St George, near Darlington.

The proposals include a mixture of two, three and four bedroom semi-detached properties, as well as four bedroom detached houses.

In a desperate attempt to sway the committee, Catherine Gilson, representing Middleton St George Parish Council, said the number of homes planned or built in recent years in the village had now reached well over 1,000.

"This application cannot be viewed in isolation but must be viewed in conjunction with all the other developments. We've been asked to accept far too many houses already and we have not had the infrastructure to go with it."

Cllr Gerald Lee, Heighington and Coniscliffe Ward, said: "Middleton St George is mushrooming in size – how do we stop this?

"There are no more shops, no more pubs, no more nothing – there must be a time when we saturate it?

"As an authority, we are content to grow without thinking about the community.

"We just go on – when do we put the brakes on?"

David Coates, the council's principal planning officer, urged the committee to consider this application alone and admitted it was "very difficult" for local authorities to say no. "There are issues with other applications which may result in them not coming forward."

He also said it was "difficult to quantify" the parish council's argument that the "houses aren't needed".

"It is important to have a broad portfolio of sites available to developers," he added.

Cllr Charles Johnson, Hummersknott Ward, raised concerns about the noise from the trains which will run past the proposed development site, and the fact the single school in the village is already at "full capacity".

But Mr Coates said the environmental health team had found the railway "shouldn't present any problems" adding there were larger developments in the pipeline where a new school could be built.

A spokesman for the applicant, Karbon Homes, said: "This is not open space – it cannot be farmed as it is too small. It is a nothing piece of land so we think it is a very sensible plan”.

He added that the hourly bus service in the village was "not a bad service", and because of a curve in the railway line, the trains running past the homes would have to travel "very slow".