Vandalised offices could be demolished

5:10pm Sunday 29th June 2008

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By Neil Macfarlane »

PLANNERS look set to give the go-ahead for a new housing estate on the site of a vandalism-plagued office block this week.

Hopetown House closed over a year ago, and the building has become a magnet for vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

Police are regularly called to the site off Brinkburn Road to deal with break-ins and incidents involving drug users.

A planning application from Arkle Securities Ltd looks to revamp the land with 48 houses and 54 apartments.

The run-down office block will be demolished and replaced with landscaped avenues with parking for 130 vehicles.

Darlington Borough Council's planning applications committee meets at the Town Hall on Wednesday, and councillors are to be asked to approve the scheme after officers recommended that the plans should go ahead.

The report prepared for the meeting said: "The site is a vacant office unit, being unoccupied for over a year at the time of the application.

Hopetown House is currently vacant and is the subject of vandalism, security problems and anti-social behaviour.

"This is an opportunity for the building to be demolished and for the site to be developed for a more appropriate use. The development respects the amenity and general character of the area."

The report concludes that the development would help reduce anti-social behaviour which has blighted the local community, and adds that the council has a responsibility to "do all that it reasonably can to prevent crime and disorder in its area."

If approved, the streets will feature detached and semi-detached houses with either two or three bedrooms. The buildings will stand between two and three storeys high. The apartments have either one or two bedrooms in a five storey high block. The properties will be built around a series of courtyards.

Developers have not included affordable housing units within the scheme but have offered to make money available to the council to be used in an area of town with a greater need for affordable housing.

The plan has received one objection from the owner of a house neighbouring the land.

The committee meets at the Town Hall on Wednesday July 2 at 1.30pm.