A FRESH plan to build homes on a greenbelt site has been made by a developer, taking the number of proposed houses for the area to more than 800.

Barratt Developments is seeking planning permission from Sedgefield Borough Council to build 274 houses at Whitworth Park, Spennymoor.

If the council backs new plans for the site they must go before the Government Office North-East for consideration because the site, between Carr Lane and Burton Beck Woods, is greenbelt land.

It will decide whether the matter needs to cleared by the Secretary of State.

The site is designated in the local plan for housing, but during consultation about the first planning application questions were raised about the environmental status of the land.

As a former pit heap it had been considered as brownfield or previously developed land, which is the Government's preferred location for new buildings.

But it had to be reclassified as greenfield because of restoration to country park land, which is now popular with walkers.

The application is the third made by Barratts, which has already filed plans for 100 and 193 homes on separate plots. The application takes the number of proposed houses for the site to 809.

A consortium of developers has already secured permission to build 230 homes and now wants to vary the consent to build an extra 12.

Charlie Walton, head of planning services at Sedgefield Borough Council, said: "During the first referral to the Government Office North- East, this area was reclassified as greenfield due to permission granted in the 1960s for restoration work.

"For that reason a local planning authority is minded to approve a development on greenfield land.

"Despite being an industrial area we have relatively few brownfield sites, so have to consider greenfield developments.

"All the proposals are for a mixture of house types and designs, at higher density than previously built, which could attract well paid people and there are affordable options to bring in families.

"The new applications will be go before the development control committee as soon as practically possible."