YOUNG couples face being priced out of Middleton St George by an influx of luxury homes while children are refused entry to its school, according to a Vital Village meeting.

A barrage of criticism was unleashed against developers and town planners at the first public hearing of its parish plan last week. It is intended as a vision of how residents want to preserve the character of the village and ensure adequate facilities as it grows.

Consultant Dr John England said one of the biggest complaints in response to a village questionnaire was a vast increase in the number of houses, without a related expansion of the school or the GPs' surgery.

He said: "Darlington Council does not seem to be making builders provide payments for new school spaces, as other local authorities do."

One woman said she had already been warned her child might not get into the primary school, while the mother of a 14-month-old baby was told to get her name down as soon as possible.

Coun Doris Jones said: "We all know the school is at bursting point. We can't cope with any more houses, otherwise I fear we are going to see our children shipped out of this village to another school."

Resident, Ian Kirkbride said: "We should be building affordable properties to help youngsters remain in the community, not executive housing.

"Young people from the Thorntree estate can't afford to buy £350,000 properties."

Philip Newbold, a local architect, said: "Democracy is something of a sham. An Act of Parliament says you have to have a good reason not to grant a developer permission.

"We can say until we are blue in the face we want starter houses in the village, but if the developer comes with a proposal for five-bedroom houses, the planning authority can't refuse.

"There is more profit in a £380,000 house than a block of flats, even though the village needs one- and two-bedroom flats far more.

"We also have got to get our planning department interested in a higher standard of design.

"Look at the quality of the new development on the former Winterton Hospital site at Sedgefield. County Durham is a real stickler for making you use expensive bricks and stone detailing

"Here they let us build urban houses in a rural setting. It looks like a bit of Ingleby Barwick glued on the edges."

Dr England said the borough was pledging to protect the village greenfield sites in its next local plan.

He predicted a slow-down in the number of new estates as brownfield sites filled up, adding that builders would also be constrained by the capacity of the main sewerage system.