A FUTURISTIC building designed to help nurture fledgling companies is to be developed on a North-East business park.

The Incubator will be built as part of the NetPark project, which is being developed at the former Winterton Hospital site, near Sedgefield, County Durham.

NetPark, being jointly developed by Durham County Council and Sedgefield Borough Council, is intended to be a science and technology park of regional, national and international importance.

The building, which received planning permission last week, will consist mostly of small office units, but also includes six laboratory units.

It is thought that the first tenants will be academics looking to commercialise their research.

Andrew Farnie, planning officer at Sedgefield Borough Council, said: "The Incubator will provide a full range of services to tenants, including security, telephone answering, secretarial, business advice and support.

"The aim is to nurture new companies through the very difficult first 36 months of their existence before transplanting them on to other premises on the site.

"This concept is for companies to develop, grow, expand and move elsewhere. That's why this particular building is called The Incubator."

A bistro facility is included as well as 50 parking spaces.

Architects had to go back to the drawing board when their first design was considered "mundane".

Mr Farnie said: "As a result of lengthy and sometimes difficult meetings, we have come up with a building that's very distinctive, and we feel has a certain amount of character to it.

"We feel this may be one of the best buildings in the borough, and we're looking forward to this being developed."