A FOUR-DAY public inquiry, which will seal the future of a derelict corner of Durham City, opened this week.

A new dawn looked set for the down-at-heel Dragonville area when a local development company was given the go ahead to establish a large retail park, including a B &Q store, on a site bounded by Rennys Lane and Sunderland Road.

With permission in the bag, however, Dragonville Development Ltd, later decided to amend its application to allow for better access roads.

The new submission was welcomed by the city council, which also received a second application from Alexage Ltd, for another retail park on a neighbouring site between Dragon Lane and Damson Way.

This was followed by a third retail park application, also on a site in Dragon Lane, lodged by Sunniside Properties Ltd and Mono Containers Ltd.

And though the city council had already approved the new DDL proposal and given its initial backing to the Alexage submission, it has expressed some concerns over the Sunniside bid.

But before the Sunniside application could be submitted to the council's planning committee, Government planning guidelines relating to out of town retail developments were altered, resulting in all of the Dragonville proposals being called in by the Deputy Prime Minister's office.

On Tuesday, Government Planning Inspector Andrew Freeman opened a public inquiry, which is estimated to last four days.

Before listening to submissions by barristers representing all three companies, Mr Freeman said that he had received letters from Durham's MP Gerry Steinberg supporting the DDL proposal.

During the hearing, counsel for each of the applicants have been giving details of the various developments and calling expert evidence asserting that the bids comply with national regional and local planning policies as well as with highway conditions.

Apart from the city council's concerns and Durham County Council worries over traffic implications in relation to the Sunniside application, the developments have been generally welcomed as a means of breathing new life into the long-neglected eastern corner of Durham.

The hearing is expected to finish this Friday with visits to each site planned for next week.