VILLAGERS have won their long-running battle to stop a housing development near their homes.

Developers have pulled the plug on plans to build more than 300 homes on the edge of West Rainton - a scheme dating back to the early 1990s.

Wimpey Homes has written to Durham City Council to say it has withdrawn its application for planning permission.

Developers have been trying to build on farm land near Station Road since 1991 and have put forward schemes of various sizes.

A planning inspector insisted in 1991 that an expensive junction was built on the A690 Sunderland to Durham road to accommodate the extra traffic, which appeared to scupper the plans.

But the developers came back with a revised plan a few years later and won approval from Durham County Council for a less-costly traffic light junction after offering to pay towards the county's planned park and ride site at Belmont.

Now Wimpey Homes, which was working with Bryant Homes, has announced it is dropping the scheme.

Residents campaigned against the development over the years, fearing extra houses would swamp the village, destroy its character and add to traffic hazards on the busy A690.

City councillor Bill Kellett, also chairman of nearby Pittington Parish Council, said he was pleased the plans had been abandoned.

West Rainton parish councillor Kathleen Carr said: "We are really overjoyed. For once West Rainton has won something, which is really good news.

"If the development had gone ahead it wouldn't have been a village any longer and the traffic would have been a lot worse.

"It wouldn't have benefited anyone in the village at all. We would have ended up a dormitory area."

Eric Coates, chairman of the West Rainton Housing Action Group, said: "The development was in the wrong spot. I know there is a need for housing but there is so much rubbish land knocking about they could have got hold of I don't know why they wanted a green field site."

Alan Simpson, of Durham City Council's planning department, said Government guidance on green field development had been strengthened which could have effected the chance of permission being granted.

"There was almost a mood against the granting of planning permission.''

A county council spokesman said there was no longer a need for traffic lights at West Rainton, adding that the developers' withdrawal would not affect funding of the park and ride.

No one from the developers was available for comment.