DEVELOPERS are trying to exploit the rejection of a controversial growth plan to build houses in legally protected countryside, it has emerged.

Just two weeks since Planning Inspector Harold Stephens savaged Durham County Council’s 20-year economic blueprint the County Durham Plan (CDP) as flawed, unrealistic and unsound, housebuilders are already trying to capitalise on what some say is a policy vacuum.

Seeking consent to build ten houses in the picturesque conservation area village of Shadforth, near Durham, Haswell Moor Developments says the council is now failing to demonstrate the minimum five-year supply of land available for housing and so “substantial weight” must be afforded to proposals which help meet the deficit.

It had been feared Mr Stephens’ verdict would leave the county both without a growth strategy for attracting new investment and jobs and vulnerable to opportunistic, inappropriate development.

In a Westminster debate earlier this week, North-West Durham MP Pat Glass warned it would create a “free-for-all”, with catastrophic consequences for her constituency.

However, campaigners who fought to protect the Green Belt from the 4,000 new homes proposed in the CDP deny they are to blame for the situation.

John Ashby, from the Friends of Durham Green Belt, said the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the 2004 City of Durham Local Plan still applied and planning applications would be determined “as they always have been”.

Councillor Neil Foster, the council’s cabinet member for economic development, said the authority was seeking legal advice on Mr Stephens’ report and awaiting advice from planning minister Penny Mordaunt.

“We await both advisory notes and will hopefully be in a position over the next two weeks to clarify what is an unprecedented situation,” he added.

Meanwhile, a range of campaigning and residents’ groups have written to Cllr Foster and council leader Simon Henig requesting urgent talks over the future of the CDP.

Cllr Foster said it would not be sensible to meet before other “crucial” talks. The council hopes to meet Planning Inspectorate officials shortly.

On the Shadforth scheme, the council’s planning department says the issue is “finely balanced” but recommends consent be approved.

A council planning committee will debate the issue on Tuesday (March 10).