COUNCILLORS have finally agreed to grant permission for a "Wild West" water wheel to be erected - just weeks after they rejected the idea outright.

Members of Derwentside District Council were told by one of their own staff that they must reconsider the plan to erect a water wheel at Knitsley Mill on the outskirts of Consett.

The councillors had been upset that developer Les Smith repeatedly submitted plans after he had already started work.

But the district's director of planning Peter Reynolds said that a previous history of bad feeling was not sufficient reason to reject the scheme.

Yesterday, members of thecouncil's planning committee changed their minds on the issue.

The councillors also approved another proposal by Mr Smith to construct a golf driving range and car park.

Mr Smith, who runs the pub and fishing complex at Knitsley, wrote a letter to the council apologising for starting work on various projects without permission. He has argued that a water wheel has existed on the site since the 1300s.

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England described the wheel as reminiscent of the "Wild West".

Yesterday, coordinator of the CPRE in Derwentside, Colin Churcher, said that the organisation had condemned work at the leisure complex during the past ten years as a "rape of the countryside".

In an emotional speech to the planning committee yesterday, he said: "After the death of your own planning officer, Harry Collinson, who was shot dead in the course of his duties, I recall councillors saying they would carry on his work in protecting our countryside.

"But I look at what you have allowed to happen in this once quiet and peaceful valley and wonder whether you can still say you've kept to that promise."

Chairman of the council Eric Turner said he considered the comments about Mr Collinson were inappropriate.

Mr Smith was unavailable for comment last night