KILLER Albert Dryden is making a parole bid, 12 years after he gunned down a council officer in a planning row.

Planning officer Harry Collinson was shot at point-blank range when council officers moved in to demolish Dryden's illegally built bungalow in 1991.

After serving 11 years of his life sentence for murder, Dryden is making a second bid for parole.

In June 1991, after years of fruitless negotiations with Dryden, Derwentside District Council officials sent in bulldozers to flatten his property at Butsfield, near Consett, County Durham.

The former steelworker responded by shooting dead Mr Collinson, 46, and injuring a policeman and a reporter.

Last night, Harry Collinson's brother, Roy, of Stocksfield, Northumberland, reacted with anger.

He said: "Albert Dryden should have been hanged. Failing that, he should stay behind bars forever."

Two years ago, Dryden was refused parole after it was felt he showed little evidence of remorse.

He is still a high-security category B prisoner, but a parole hearing next month will decide if he should be downgraded, in a move that would lead to his eventual release.

If the parole board supports him, Dryden would be moved to an open prison to prepare him for life outside.

His eventual release will take about three years.

Mr Collinson said: "This is just one step away from a holiday camp.

"Everyone seems to have forgotten that Albert Dryden cold-bloodedly killed my brother, for no other reason than for not getting his own way.

"When he gets out, he will come back to Consett and those idiots who support him will rally round and make him some sort of hero."

Dryden shot Mr Collinson twice in the chest, and once in the head while he lay on the ground.

The incident was seen by millions of people after the tragedy was captured by a photographer from The Northern Echo and a BBC television camera crew.

Dryden was jailed for life at Newcastle Crown Court in 1992 and is serving his sentence at Rye Hill Prison, in Warwickshire.

His long-time friends, father-and-son John and Justin Snowdon, from Satley, near Consett, said it was time he was released.

Justin, 34, a haulage contractor, said: "He deserves a second chance. He was obviously disturbed on the day it all happened, but he was pushed by the council.

"He has served enough now and I only hope he gets parole.