PUB company J D Wetherspoon has pulled out of its plans to transform an empty property in Crown Street, Darlington, into a superpub.

The company was to take over the former First Freeze building opposite the Cornmill car park and turn it into a Lloyds music-based bar. It already has one pub in the town.

The firm had planning and licensing permission and work was due to begin a year ago, but a dispute with the building's owners led to the contracts remaining unsigned.

It was said several months ago that the problems had been resolved.

A spokesman said yesterday: "The board has made a decision that, although it wants a second pub in Darlington, this was not necessarily the right location. It would rather bide its time and find a better one."

Council bids for new schools cash

A BID for Government cash to build new schools in Darlington is being submitted this month.

Tuesday's cabinet meeting heard that talks had been held with secondary headteachers over the shaping of the bid in the light of falling pupil numbers.

It was decided that secondary schools ideally should be a minimum size of 900 pupils.

Closer collaboration between secondary and primary schools was necessary and could be fostered by establishing "collaboratives" of a secondary school with feeder primaries, possibly managed on a federated basis.

Teachers agreed that all schools should be rebuilt as opposed to being refurbished and - where a new school was to be created by combining two schools - resited if possible.

Mr Geoff Pennington, director of education, said that the condition of secondary school buildings in Darlington fell well short of a standard appropriate to this day and age.