There’s no snow on the ground, and the town’s Christmas tree and festive lights can’t be seen from this particular window, but the view is still good enough and very different to what would have been seen a few years ago.

The Feethams leisure complex and office block, the latter which is under construction, are just one of a series of projects set to create thousands of jobs in the coming years.

“Everything I do is about improving the lives of local people, and having a vibrant, strong economy is critical to that,” said Cllr McEwan, deputy leader and cabinet member for economy and regeneration at the council.

"Economic growth is key to ensure the town thrives, and continues to be a place where investors want to realise their ambition."

"We are only a catalyst," added Mr Williams, director of economic growth at the council.

"It is the private sector that invest, and they only come to an area if they can realise their ambition.

"Darlington has proved time and time again we can do that."

The pair both point to a number of examples to highlight this. Central Park has seen the opening of CPI's National Biologics Manufacturing Centre, Teesside University's National Horizon's building, a UK centre of excellence for biosciences, both of which they say put Darlington on the map, as does the revamped Darlington Hippodrome.

 

"If you’re a multinational company looking to expand and looking for a place to invest, you look at a number of factors but also how does a town feel, so the Hippodrome has helped us there."

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But arguably the most exciting project in the pipeline is on the outskirts of the town – the 94 acre Symmetry Park.

The Northern Echo revealed earlier this year that Amazon are understood to be the major online retailer who will occupy the majority of the site, and they could move into the building as early as August next year.

 

The occupiers of the remaining space, which is around a third of the site, should also be revealed next year.

"Symmetry Park is one of largest pre-let developments in the UK this year, and to have a project come to Darlington and the Tees Valley that is going to bring 2,500-plus jobs has to be something to be excited about.

"They chose here, they could have chosen any other site in the UK, but they chose here.

"The thing I’m keen to stress about the job opportunities in Darlington is we have a variety and are not reliant on any one sector.

" None of us know where Brexit is going to take us, but at least we are not reliant on one particular sector or issue that might arise in that sector."

The last 12 months has also seen progress on Ingenium Parc, a deal agreed on the relocation of Darlington's cattle mart, and increased pressure on the Government to support Bank Top Station's regeneration plans.

 

But 2018 has also had it's challenge, with Darlington town centre losing Marks and Spencer and House of Fraser, before a rescue deal was agreed to give the latter a temporary reprieve.

"Footfall is falling – it has been for a number of years," said Cllr McEwan.

"We are working with the new owners of House of Fraser to look at medium and long term aspirations and understand where we can support

"The reality is the nature of the high street changing. We will increasingly see the high street have varied use for people working here, living here, eating and drinking here, and also shopping, but it will be a condensed offer."

"The easiest thing in the world is to dive in and buy a property but if you’ve got no end use for it you are not improving the situation," said Mr Williams.

"We need time to work with the private sector to see what the final use could be. We know where we have empty properties.

"What government is telling us about how to revitalise town centres, we have bene doing that anyway.

"Darlington is a place where we don’t always appreciate what we’ve got and a lot of towns will be envious of what we have got.

"I'm not saying we are the best, I'm not saying we are the worst - we are punching above our weight."