A DOCUMENT which earmarks where thousands of homes will be built in Stockton has been agreed.

Stockton Council’s long awaited “Local Plan” was passed by 32 votes at Stockton Town Hall on Wednesday night (January 30).

It will pinpoint where homes will be allocated in the borough up to 2032 as well as the main transport and infrastructure projects to be completed.

About 10,000 homes are in the blueprint and more than 3,000 have already been granted planning permission.

The West Stockton Sustainable Urban Extension will provide 2,550 homes off Yarm Back Lane and Harrowgate Lane with 1,100 homes allocated at Wynyard Park.

Elsewhere, Eaglescliffe Golf Club and the former Billingham Campus School site each have 150 homes lined up.

The plan also supports the regeneration of the Tees Marshalling Yard with 1,100 homes, but there is no direct housing allocation for this site.

Improvements to the A66 Elton interchange and the A19/A67 Crathorne interchange are also in the blueprint – as well as works at the Horse and Jockey roundabout and cycle links between Ingleby Barwick and Egglescliffe, and Thorpe Thewles to Wynyard Woodland Park.

The plan was found to be “legally sound” by planning inspector Matthew Birkenshaw in December on the back of a public inspection last summer and some tweaks to the original vision.

Councillors hope it will give the authority more clout when it comes to its planning decisions and stop its decisions being overturned.

The blueprint didn’t pass without a heated debate.

Conservative group leader Cllr Matt Vickers branded the document “half-baked” and a “greenfield grab”.

He added: “We’ve desperately awaited a local plan and I fail to see why we haven’t had one place before now.

“If we had a plan in place, Yarm and Kirklevington would not have been subject to such irresponsible levels of development and they wouldn’t be suffering the misery of congestion we see today.

“You’re shutting the gate after the horse, the cow, the sheep, the pig and even the chicken have bolted.”

The member for Hartburn said two brownfield sites – Boathouse Lane and the Tees Marshalling Yard – had been lost from the allocations and he believed the housing along Harrowgate and Yarm Back Lane would cause “misery to motorists”.

Cllr Vickers added: “This local plan is not right for Stockton but we need a local plan to protect Yarm, Kirklevington, Wynyard and others from further over-development – therefore we’re unable to vote against it.”

But Labour members accused Cllr Vickers of electioneering and hypocrisy and cabinet member Cllr Jim Beall accused himrs of “show-boating” and chasing “cheap headlines”.

Cllr Louise Baldock said lots of planning guidance was removed by the coalition government in 2010.

The Labour member for Parkfield and Oxbridge added: “It’s left us a hostage to any developer who wants to come along for years – any developer thinks those greenfield sites in the south of Yarm and Kirklevington is where I’m going to make the most money.

“All the building of these executive homes on our green fields has happened as a direct consequence of the action the coalition government took.”

Council leader Cllr Bob Cook said land had to be sold due to government cuts.

He added: “One of the things your government has said is sell off pieces of land to get money into the council and that’s what we’ve been doing for the last 10 years because of the £75m we’ve had cut from our budget.”

Earlier, Ingleby Barwick Independent Cllr Ross Patterson said there was a plan to build on the brownfield Blue Green Heart between Stockton and Middlesbrough but the funding was pulled.

Cllr Nigel Cooke, member for housing and regeneration, said the blueprint would be a “key mechanism” to deliver its priorities and the council was “pushing ahead” with brownfield sites.

He added: “I did a quick tally and I reckon of all the developments in the plan, a third are on brownfield sites so I think that’s covered.

“The comments were saying this is a half-baked plan – do I need my hearing testing? It certainly isn’t – it’s gone through a rigorous inspection.

“To use the current trendy phrase – let’s do it.”

The plan is designed to meet the needs of Stockton’s growing population – with the plan forecasting a rise from 194,000 to 213,600 by 2032.

The vote was 32 in favour with none against and no abstentions.