By Martin Walker
Paul Gittins has described the proposed £32.1m development of Woodham Golf Club as “brilliant”.
Mr Gittins, Cllr for Aycliffe North, was one of the Durham County Councillors who voted unanimously in favour of the project, which will include a 75-bedroom four-star hotel and up to 50 executive-style houses.
In an exclusive interview with Aycliffe Today, he said: “It’s absolutely brilliant, especially this year when there’s been so much negativity.
“Here in Aycliffe we had the Hitachi decision last year, and now this one and I think it’ll be an excellent facility.
“This is just the provisional planning consent, what they plan to do with the hotel sounds really good and the executive houses which will be top-of-the-range, so it’ll be really good.
“I think it’ll be a while yet because it’s just outline planning permission now. The developers will tweak the application, bring it back and the local members will look at it.
“It’s creating a lot of jobs and they’re investing more than £30m, which is an awful lot of money, which is great for the area.”
Cllr Gittins says he empathised with Friends of Woodham, who opposed the plans.
Keith Henderson, a town councillor from Great Aycliffe Town Council, spoke passionately for more than six minutes during yesterday’s planning committee meeting.
He said it should have been rejected because it depended on the golf club being viable, which he questioned.
But councillors agreed the scheme would ensure the club’s long-term future, as well as making it a popular destination for golfers across Europe.
And Cllr Gittins added: “You can understand their frustrations, but we have to look at the bigger picture.
“There was some opposition, but there was 180 letters of support as well, so it was good to have a good outcome.”
Go to our Video Vault to see our interview with Cllr Gittins
1 Comment
A.Long
March 7, 2012 at 4:59 pmI find it quite ironic that the people of ryder court and surrounding areas tried to oppose this development ! imagine people had rejected the proposals for a new development on the outskirts of newton aycliffe when their houses were built ! where would they be now?
Any development and income in and around the town is fantastic news, i just wish we had a town center the owners of these luxury homes would want to visit !