AN angry businessman says efforts to expand his family firm and create more jobs are being blocked by the local council.

Bill Blamire, whose printing company has operated in Ferryhill for 100 years, says the local authority is putting obstacles in the way of him moving to larger premises.

But officials from Sedgefield Borough Council say they are following planning rules laid down by the Government.

Mr Blamire has identified the former Praxis textiles factory in the Dean Bank area of town as an ideal site to relocate his business.

When he learned the council had put in a token offer for the site he contacted council officials, but says he was told that there were no specific plans for the disused building.

Mr Blamire called in a structural engineer and other experts to carry out an appraisal of the building and submitted an offer to the estate agent.

In the meantime, he says, he had very little feedback from the council except for a request asking what he planned for the building.

Later he discovered the council had increased its offer for the site and was told his business would be classed as B2, requiring full planning permission.

Mr Blamire said: "It has really upset me. Apart from everything else, I had got my staff upbeat about it. If the council had told me at the start they wanted the site I would have probably just walked away, but to let me go through with all this expense and time is not right. There is something seriously wrong with the way they have conducted themselves."

John Litherland, Sedgefield Borough Council's director of planning, said: "We need a planning application, there is no getting away from that. We are dealing with it all as quickly as possible, but we must follow the legislation."