AN MP has branded the decision to allow 200 extra houses in Teesside 'disgraceful and thoroughly misguided'.

Matt Vickers MP for Stockton South said the decision to allow 200 new homes in Green Lane in Yarm will 'condemn local commuters and residents to gridlock' and will be 'a total disaster for the area'.

An appeal from the Theakston Estate was successful and the planning inspectorate will now allow the 200 homes to be built.

Mr Vickers said: "This decision is disgraceful and completely misguided.

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“It appears that the Planning Inspectorate didn't spend much time in Yarm. The impacts of this decision will condemn local commuters and residents to gridlock. Without any meaningful plans to radically upgrade the present infrastructure, allowing the construction of 200 extra homes will be a total disaster for the area.

“Through their delay in delivering a local plan and then producing the wrong one, the Labour council has already allowed far too many homes to be built in Yarm. Concreting over our green space and clogging up our roads.

“However, at the heart of this we have a planning system that is broken and not fit for purpose.

“I have already raised the impact of over development with the Housing Minister and I will be taking this decision up with the Minister immediately and continue to campaign to finally reform our deeply unfair planning system.”

The homes will be built on land south of Green Lane, east of the railway line and west of A67 in Yarm.

Mr Vickers added: "Yarm has had so much development, it's been completely over-developed in recent years. Yarm and Kirkleatham have been battered, the number of houses is unbelievable. It's just had more than its fair share.

"Houses have to be built but there's a limit to how many you can build in one place and how many you can build on green space."

Councillor Nigel Cooke, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Housing, said: “The most important thing to remember here is that we turned down this application after listening to the views of local people.

“To see that local decision overturned by the national Planning Inspectorate – which sits under the new Government Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – is hugely frustrating.

“But we’ve seen this happen time after time.

“When people see these houses getting built I really hope they remember that we actually refused the application.”

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