A PLANNING appeal to overturn a council’s decision to refuse a controversial housing scheme is being held next month.

Story Homes is taking action after Durham County Council’s planning committee rejected its application to create 149 houses at Lanchester.

The developer wants to build on the land north of Newbiggin Lane and west of Mount Park Drive.

The inquiry will be held at Lanchester Community Centre on April 12, starting at 10am.

A planning inspector, appointed by the Communities Secretary Greg Clark, will hear representations and make a judgement.

When the matter was heard at County Hall in Durham in June last year, councillors heard 1,357 residents lodged formal objections to the scheme.

Planning officers also recommended the application was refused.

North-West Durham MP Pat Glass, who lives in the village, also objected to the scheme, along with Lanchester Parish Council.

She said: “My biggest concern is around the planning issues such as flooding.

“We know Lanchester floods every time we get heavy rain and the idea of building another 150 houses with that concrete and all of those drives is going to make flooding in the village worse.

“There is also the issue of things like traffic. I now leave my house on a Monday morning to get the train from Durham. I do not go through Lanchester anymore because it is so congested anywhere from 7am on a morning. I drive right around Esh and Langley Park and come out.

“I put about five miles on my journey because it is quicker than trying to get several hundred yards through the centre of Lanchester. It is just a nightmare.

“It would pressure on the schools, sewage and electricity in the area. All of these infrastructure issues are already under massive pressure.”

The company proposed a mixture of two to five bedroom properties, 94 of which would be detached and 20 per cent of which would be classed as ‘affordable homes’.

A spokesman for Story Homes said: “Story Homes believes that housing on this site would bring much needed new homes to the wider County Durham area.

“We feel that Story Homes is well placed to create a sustainable development of high quality family homes.”