ONE of the North-East’s most successful family firms has been granted permission to build a new £3.4m store in the town where it all started.

Furniture retailer Barker and Stonehouse will open a new shop on the site of a derelict former leisure centre at Teesside Park shopping and leisure centre, near Stockton.

But the firm, which is the largest independent retailer in the UK and was founded in Stockton in 1946, is expected to close its large Middlesbrough branch, at Cannon Park.

A planning application had been submitted to Stockton Borough Council to knock down the former Springs Leisure Centre, which has been closed since 2007, and open a 4,827sq metre store, which will be about the size of a football pitch.

At the planning committee meeting held at Stockton Central Library today, Wednesday, April 16, James Barker, managing director of the firm, said the building work would create work for 60 to 70 local tradesmen. The shop is expected to employ about 40 full time staff.

Committee member, coun Jim Beall, Labour, said: “This is a quality application, a chance to bring Barker and Stonehouse back to the borough of Stockton.”

James Wharton, MP for Stockton South, Conservative, said: “The news that The Springs site will finally be regenerated and replaced with a new Barker and Stonehouse store is really welcome."

Stockton Borough Council's planning committee had refused two previous applications to develop the prime site at the former leisure centre, which is close to the entrance to Teesside Park. However the Barker and Stonehouse application was unanimously approved.