NEW homes are to be built on a former school site in Wolsingham.

Developer Hyperion Homes have been given planning approval to build 34 houses behind St Anne's High School, in Wolsingham, which closed in summer 2001.

The school building, known locally as the Convent, is to be converted into seven houses and three apartments.

Over the next two years the £5m project will create two, three, four and five-bedroom houses and flats on the school's 2 acre site.

Hyperion used ideas from existing buildings in the village for the design of the development, which includes five low-cost homes.

The school's former nursery is being demolished to create access from Rectory Lane.

Some residents fear this will create traffic problem, although the highways authority, Durham County Council, has raised no objection.

Objector Tom Cramb told a meeting of Wear Valley District Council's development control committee that a better access would have been through Demesne Mill.

He said: "Rectory Lane is a narrow road where residents park their cars. It is estimated that there would be 44 cars an hour using the site, creating a dangerous junction in Angate Street, which is already a very busy road."

Mr Cramb is also concerned about a group of lime trees that overhang a parking area.

Nigel Ekins, who leads Hyperion's sales and marketing team, said the development was designed to blend with village homes, using a mixture of stone and render with natural slate roofing.

The first properties should go on the market at the end of May and be ready for occupation by the end of the year.

St Anne's closed because it could not attract enough pupils to stay viable.