Consultancy helps secure approval on £60m housing scheme

Planning and design consultancy Barton Willmore, now Stantec, has provided planning advice to developer Vistry Partnerships North East on a scheme which is set to bring forward more than 300 homes in the Bishop Auckland area.Planning permission has been secured for the £60.4m housing development and construction has started on the site near to Auckland Park.A total of 331 homes will be built by Vistry Partnerships North East and County Durham-based housing association believe housing.The development follows on from the creation of the 99-home mixed-tenure development called Bishops Park, which was completed last year.Michelle Robinson, planning associate at Barton Willmore, now Stantec, said: “This is a complex site and it has been a long-standing aspiration of Vistry Partnerships to create this development.”The mix of houses being planned for the site will help to widen housing choice and to provide a welcome increase in the housing stock in the area.”The site first received outline planning permission in 2014 for up to 500 homes and a community/commercial development. A range of two, three and four-bed properties are being planned for the site, together with areas of open space and drainage features.Barton Willmore, now Stantec, has previously advised Vistry Partnerships North East on a series of other developments in the region including Penshaw House, Sunderland; St George’s Hospital, Morpeth and North Farm, Blyth.