A WATCHDOG has criticised a council over its decision to give planning permission for an extension to an industrial estate on farmland.

Local Government Ombudsman Patricia Thomas said Derwentside District Council was guilty of maladministration causing injustice when it approved 4.4 hectares of development next to Esh Winning Industrial Estate, in 1999.

Council officers maintained it was a brownfield site despite the Durham committee of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) giving evidence that it was greenfield land and therefore could not be built on.

Mrs Thomas said that councillors would probably have refused permission if they had been properly advised''.

The CPRE, which lodged the complaint, welcomed the ruling, but faces another fight against further development of the estate.

Planning permission is being sought for a £1.3m, 4.3-hectare development to attract new firms and help the expanding Esh Partnership group of companies move on to one site.

Durham County Council, Derwentside council, Durham City Council, the Esh Partnership and Youngs Haulage are behind the scheme, which also includes a new access road to Durham Road.

The county council said the original plan of 6.3 hectares had been scaled down after talks with residents and environmentalists "to help protect the environment''.

The council's head of regeneration, Bob Ward, said some of their views had been taken on board.

He said: "It is vital to the local economy that hundreds of existing jobs are not lost in the Deerness Valley and the opportunity for new ones is seized.''

Dr Shirley Goodyear, CPRE committee chairman, said: "Although we are delighted that the ombudsman has upheld the correct facts, it is very much a hollow victory as the development is still going ahead on the basis of a badly- flawed decision.

"Moreover, riding on the back of this planning consent is a new proposal for larger- scale industrial expansion at Esh Winning, so the CPRE's battle against the unwarranted use of greenfield land in this area continues.''

The ombudsman is recommending that Derwentside council compensates the CPRE by carrying out an environmental project in the village, or pays the CPRE £5,000.

A spokesman said the council could not comment until councillors had considered the ombudsman's report.