A PUBLIC meeting has been organised to discuss plans for 21 homes in High Coniscliffe.

A planning application has been submitted to Darlington Borough Council for 16 flats and five terrace houses on the former site of Dick Lawson's garden machinery centre.

Outline permission for the site was granted earlier this year and landscaping, a new access road and garages are also included in the detailed application submitted by Kebbell Development of Watford.

St Edwin's Close, which replaced farm buildings, was the last residential development to be built in the village 30 years ago.

The parish council has organised a public meeting on January 4, in the church hall, 6pm. Chairman John Snaith said: "We would like to hear the opinions of people from the village. The application will be on view in the hall on the afternoon and we would welcome comments then, so that the meeting is not overcrowded.

"Some of the buildings are quite a change from the present architecture. "A row of terrace houses is planned for the front of the site which is a continuation of the village scene, but behind it there will be a three-storey block of flats.

"Any comments will be passed on to Darlington Council."

After 36 years of business, the Lawson family decided to close its depot,which had become the first port of call for many farmers in need of machinery, on October 1 to concentrate on developing their property business.

Wind farm

plan rejected

CAMPAIGNING villagers were celebrating on Wednesday after plans for a wind farm in the heart of Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency were rejected.

Trimdon Area Group Against Wind Farms was delighted when Durham City Council planning committee refused an application by energy company EDF to erect four 76m-high turbines on farmland between the Trimdons and Town Kelloe.

The wind farm would have provided electricity to 3,145 homes, but objectors said the turbines would have been too close to villages.

The Prime Minister's agent, John Burton, earlier this week wrote to objectors signalling support for their stance - prompting North-East Conservative Euro-MP Martin Callanan to accuse the Labour premier of hypocrisy, as the Government was encouraging alternative forms of energy.

No mention of Mr Blair's intervention was made during the meeting, but both Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors opposed the plans.