CONTROVERSIAL plans to expand a County Durham pork farm have been pulled.

Durham County Council councillors had been due to rule on the proposals to build sheds big enough for up to 2,000 pigs at Biggin Farm, in New Brancepeth, near Durham, yesterday.

But at the beginning of the meeting of the county council’s Central and East Area Planning Committee, members were told the application had been withdrawn.

The scheme had prompted hundreds of objections and had been recommended for refusal by the council's planning department.

A representative of Arm Buildings Ltd, a firm specialising in pig farms, emailed the council on Monday to request the application be withdrawn.

A previous application to bring 4,000 pigs to the farm was withdrawn in 2018.