Northumberland County Council has just suffered a major embarrassment to its plans for a new “Garden Village” at Ponteland as the Government has officially rejected their submission and the Council’s plan has not been included on the national list to go forward. The Government’s door is now closed to their submission and, if there is a new round of applications, the County Council would be forced to put in a new proposal.

Northumberland Conservatives were clear from the outset that the Dissington Garden Village scheme could not be justified and that it did not comply with the criteria that the Government has set out. In particular the proposed scheme would have had an overwhelming impact on the infrastructure of Ponteland, it was obviously not a discreet and separate settlement and it is no local support in the community. Most important is the lack of evidence that there is any proven need for all f these extra houses.

Coun Peter Jackson, Leader of Northumberland Conservatives said, “This Government rejection puts shows the absolute confusion at the heart of Northumberland’s planning policy in sharp focus. Our Labour-run County Council is determined to ignore the evidence that there is no proven need for all of these extra houses in our county and it is fortunate that the Government has seen through their proposal.

In Northumberland we are in the perilous position of having a Labour-run County Council which is determined to create a Developers’ Paradise at the expense of destroying our communities, not planning for basic infrastructure needs and not even planning to improve our local economy. All they are doing is to increase the number of daily commuters to Tyneside.

With this rejection of their plans from Government and the recent formal objection to their plans by Newcastle City Council on the grounds of potential major traffic congestions problems, I call upon Labour in Northumberland to rethink their planning assumptions for the much delayed Core Strategy structure plan. At the very least they should now withdraw their support for this botched Garden Village scheme.”