A LONG-term housing strategy to create thousands of new homes in Darlington is set to be scrutinised by councillors.

Five years’ worth of work for the Darlington local plan was eventually scrapped by inspectors after Darlington Borough Council failed to execute a strategy within the set time limit.

But the housing element of the council’s new draft local plan must find space for an additional 5,800 homes in the borough.

Locations for the extra houses comes after the authority was already asked to make room for 4,100 new homes to be built between 2011 and 2026.

But a recent study concluded that, to meet demand for 9,900 dwellings, around 500 houses must be built every year between 2016 and 2036.

Pressure to develop existing areas of the town or to create new estates has been blamed on the Government after it pledged to address a nationwide housing shortage.

Steve Petch, Darlington Borough Council’s head of strategy, will deliver a presentation to members of a special places scrutiny committee on Tuesday (March 31).

It will outline Darlington’s new local plan and housing strategy between 2016 and 2036.

He said: “In November 2015, it was decided that we’d stop working on the Making and Growing Places Development Plan and start a new local plan.

“It doesn’t mean that all the work and evidence we have from the first plan will be scrapped – we’ll be able to use that again and add new ideas to it.

“This time we want a much more streamlined approach to make sure we speak to the relevant groups and people about potential plans and development locations.

“It’s a big challenge that faces us and we only have a small team working on it. But we’re being ambitious and hope to launch our consultation process in mid to late April.”

A draft timeline produced by the planning team indicates consultation with the public will end in August before a finalised master plan is submitted to inspectors in March 2018.

During a recent Darlington Borough Council cabinet meeting, councillors accused the local plan initiative of working too slowly, but Councillor Chris McEwan, leader of the economy and regeneration portfolio, defended the process.

He said: “We all accept that the Tory Government has driven us to this with a mantra of build, build, build.

“Our officials are working their socks off. It’s demeaning and insulting to suggest they should do more.”

Members of the public are welcome to attend the special scrutiny committee, at 1.30pm, on Thursday, March 31, in the Town Hall.