AN MP is calling on the Government to close a loophole threatening to undermine the character of a suburb in her constituency.

Stockton South MP Dari Taylor is backing residents who have written to her, concerned at a rash of plans for blocks of apartments and flats at Eaglescliffe, and the destruction of mature trees.

The letters were the result of an unprecedented drop of 3,000 leaflets by Egglescliffe Parish Council, urging residents to write to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Mrs Taylor objecting to Government guidance to builders to build on "previously developed land''

The parish council said builders are taking that phrase to mean established houses and mature gardens which they said is an unacceptable loophole.

Parish council clerk Helen Rennison said yesterday: "We are struggling to keep up with all the applications."

Mrs Taylor said she has asked for an urgent meeting with Stockton Borough Council's director of planning and requested a meeting with Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford.

She said: "People are seeing more and more planning applications and building activity that is undermining the quality of the whole sense of a good environment."