A PROPOSED regeneration scheme that would have seen hundreds of homes bulldozed will not go ahead.

Housing association Livin wanted to demolish Newton Aycliffe's Western Area and build the estate again from scratch but faced opposition from some homeowners.

The company has announced that after 14 months of consultation it is scrapping the scheme because support from the community was not strong enough.

Whilst bosses say it was a missed opportunity for investment, campaigners hailed the decision a victory for common sense.

Livin said that after 14 months of consultation only 280 of 516 households responded.

Around 9 per cent wanted to see homes refurbished, 17 per cent backed the refurbishment of existing homes and partial demolition and rebuild and just over half were in favour of Livin's preferred option of full demolition and rebuild of the estate. The rest had no preference.

Alan Boddy, director of operations for Livin said:“These results show that, despite the misleading and inaccurate information being spread by a vocal minority throughout the process, 68 per cent of residents want something to happen.

"However the reality is that the results also show there was not sufficiently strong community support for any one of the options.

"This means the physical regeneration of the estate cannot go ahead.

“We are disappointed this cannot progress.

"We always said the regeneration of this estate would be led by the community and would only progress with strong community support.

"We are encouraging all residents and other stakeholders to now get involved and work with us to determine what is next for the Western estate.”

Livin said the masterplan would have been the biggest regeneration scheme in the town for years and brought in millions of pounds of investment, provided more homes, improved community facilities, open spaces and safer streets had it gone ahead.

Arun Chandran, secretary of Great Aycliffe Residents Association, believed the vast majority of owners, tenants and private landlords were against Livin's proposal and were ready to take the case to court if necessary.

He said: "This is a tremendous victory for the residents of the estate, united, we stood our ground and won now we need to make Livin keep its word and work with residents to make option two viable and sucsessful for residents and Livin together."