TENSIONS ran high at a meeting called to scrutinise the process used by Darlington Council to predict future housing needs in the borough.

Conservative councillors used the ‘calling-in’ process to complain about two matters that were approved by cabinet on November 3.

The call-ins questioned the figures being used by the council to predict future house building in the borough and the cabinet’s decision to continue to consider building retirement apartments in Blackwell Grange.

Addressing the place scrutiny committee meeting this week, Cllr Steve York said that the council had used “vague” evidence to create an incomplete picture of the projected housing need in Darlington over the next decade.

However, scrutiny chair Cllr Bob Carson said that he was “alarmed” that the call-in was being used to question figures provided by an independent consultant – a comment that angered Cllr York and his Conservative colleagues.

An angry Cllr Heather Scott responded: “Whose decision was it to go straight to cabinet?

“The whole thing should have come back to scrutiny before cabinet; we had no other way of questioning these matters other than calling it in.”

Cllr Richard Grundy accused the council of being “Stalinist”, saying he found it “amazing” that a report could not be questioned just because it had been supplied by an independent consultant.

Cllr Carson allowed the meeting to continue and Cllr Doris Jones was among the speakers who criticised the evidence being used by the council to plan for future developments.

She pointed out apparent inaccuracies in the projected figures, warning that continuation of the current plan could lead to Darlington becoming a “concrete jungle”.

Cllr Jones concluded by called for a review of the cabinet’s endorsement of the figures.

Ian Williams, director of economic growth, said that the council was under government obligation to build more houses and had to plan for the future.

He said: “It is quite clear we have to grow the town; we are no different to any other town hall across the country in that respect.

“This isn’t the end of a journey, this is the start of the process.”

He also stressed that the figures would likely be adjusted throughout the process.

Cllr Paul Baldwin agreed, adding: “We have to face reality; the government is telling us what to do and we have to try and influence that as best we can.

“We are stuck with the national policy whether we like it or not.”

Cllr Carson conceded that the matter should have gone before a scrutiny committee before it went to cabinet however he said he would not be asking the cabinet to go back on their original decision to approve the report.

He said: “The best result is to have this discussion in scrutiny and I hope when the refreshed figures come out next year that will happen.”