ANGRY residents have confronted a landowner over plans to fund a new visitor attraction by extending a quarry.

More than 70 people from Barton and Middleton Tyas attended a meeting about the proposals for Middleton Lodge, between Darlington and Richmond.

They believe the planned extension to Barton Quarry would lead to extra noise and dust and cause house prices to fall.

James Allison, owner of Middleton Lodge, has put together multi-million pound proposals to restore the stables and kitchen gardens and create a restaurant, conference centre and farm shop.

The centrepiece of the development would be a quarry garden and lake with a 165ft fountain.

To fund the project, Mr Allison hopes to extend Barton Quarry, which is run by the family company, Sherburn Stone.

However, residents in Barton and Middleton Tyas have formed an association to fight the plans.

Speaking at Thursday night's meeting at Middleton Tyas School, association chairman Frank Jones asked Mr Allison: "Why are you using a quarry to fund your development and why should we fund your development by the fact that house prices will go down by ten to 15 per cent?"

Resident Ralph Congreve claimed the quarry extension would generate far more money than the cost of restoring the buildings.

He said: "As far as I can see, this is going to cause us a tremendous amount of upheaval for at least 15 years."

Residents also voiced concerns that people visiting the attraction would be directed through the villages by their satellite navigation systems, despite the official route being along the A1 Barton interchange.

Mr Allison told the meeting that the development would be beneficial to the area.

He said: "The extension site is farther away from Barton than the existing operation. There will be a reduction in dust and a reduction in quarry movements through Barton."

He said the development could attract up to 80,000 visitors a year, but that the restored stables and kitchen garden would not generate enough visitors to make the scheme viable without the quarry garden and fountain.

"I could restore the kitchen gardens and I could restore the stables, but I would go bankrupt," he said.

"I wouldn't have the attraction and the draw that the garden provides in terms of the number of people."