By Martin Walker
It’s still early days, but Washington Developments overcome a huge obstacle when their planning application for a £32.1m development of Woodham Golf Club was given outline permission this week.
Developers say the project will bring at least 70 new jobs to the town, as well as securing 27 current on-site posts at the golf course.
Aycliffe Today attended the planning committee meeting at Durham County Hall on Tuesday – we broke the story exclusively, and were on hand to gather exclusive interviews to gauge reaction.
We spoke to Aycliffe North councillor Paul Gittins, who said he thought the plans were “brilliant” and exciting news for the town.
Our MP Phil Wilson hailed the decision to go ahead, while Philip Barnes, a director with Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners, planning consultants for Washington Developments, also spoke to Aycliffe Today.
“We’re absolutely delighted. For Jamie Murphy and Washington Developments, it’s five years’ of work,” said Mr Barnes.
“We were brought in a couple of years ago, we re-modelled it and re-designed it, we got the decision today so we’re over the moon.
“It’s going to bring jobs. The 27 jobs on site will be retained, there’ll be 70 new jobs on site in the hotel and the golf clubhouse as well as jobs in the construction, about 45 and 24 off-site, and that’s what happens with a development of this size.
“I would say the Friends of Woodham’s points were fair, and we did everything we could to address them.
“But as the planning officer said, there’s a balance needed. This is a big investment and a lot of jobs.
“We’ve got to get the reserved matters application in and get full approval.
“But I’m confident we can get on site and start delivering this investment hopefully this year.
“The officers so far have been a tremendous help to us and I’d like to thank them for that – if that continues we should be on site this year.”
Go to our Video Vault to see Mr Barnes’ interview in full
Click here to see artist’s impressions of how the new development might look like
Green light for Woodham – read the original breaking story here
“Brilliant” says Aycliffe North Councillor Paul Gittins – click here to see his interview
Phil Wilson hails Durham County Council’s decision – click here to read our MP’s reaction
