The Northern Echo has launched a campaign calling on Government to rethink the Regional Spatial Strategy, which threatens the future of a number of flaship projects in the North East. In the first of a series of articles Toney Kearney visits NetPark, near Sedgefield.

IT develops space age technologies and components for orbiting telescopes, but it does not take a rocket scientist to recognise the importance of NetPark to County Durham's economic ambitions.

The science and technology park in Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency was opened by the Prime Minister in 2005.

Performing the ceremony, Mr Blair said: "I know this region's economy has gone through a lot of difficulties in the last few decades, but with the development of NetPark, the possibilities for future growth are endless."

Eighteen months later, the Government proposes to bring the possibility of future growth to a sudden and premature end.

The revised Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), the legally-binding planning blueprint that will govern development until 2021, proposes to limit the growth of NetPark to a paltry 13 hectares, little bigger than it is now and a fraction of the 49 hectares envisaged in the original strategy drawn up by the NorthEast Assembly.

When the suggestion emerged from a planning inspector's report last year, it was met with incredulity in County Durham, where county council chief executive Mark Lloyd likened it to "asking an Olympic gold medal prospect not to run so fast".

That decision has now been confirmed by the Government, leaving only a short consultation period to save the original vision of NetPark.

The centre provides research facilities and incubator units for fledgling technology businesses, turning mind-boggling ideas into commercial reality, such as smart crystals that can detect explosives and drugs, and electronic circuitry so flexible it can be rolled up like a newspaper.

At present, there are only 50 or 60 people working at NetPark, but its symbolic importance for County Durham far outweighs the number of jobs created in the past two years.

It is a flagship development on which many of the county's hopes are pinned. Work will start in the next few weeks on a second incubator complex, a new business village and the Plastic Electronics Technology Centre, one of only four such facilities in the world.

But, if the RSS goes through unchanged, that will pretty much be it.

Stewart Watkins, managing director of the County Durham Development Company, believes the proposed restriction on room to grow could lead to potential businesses looking elsewhere for premises.

He said: "The vision is to make the North-East of England the innovative and inventive region it used to be in the days of Stephenson, Vickers or Armstrong, which will help retain graduates, attract graduates, give job opportunities to local people and raise aspirations and ambitions.

"It is very, very important for the county's success in the future."

James Ramsbotham, chief executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce, said: "NetPark is a linchpin of the region's future economy and has received strong backing from the Government over many years.

"To discover that Ruth Kelly now wants to cut it to a third of its original planned size is extremely worrying.

"NetPark was to be the source of thousands of jobs, and many million pounds worth of future growth and must be allowed to grow and prosper."

To support The Northern Echo's campaign to persuade the Government not to stifle the region's ambitions, visit the campaign website at www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/campaigns/shapingthefuture/