4 May 2021
BOOST FOR VILLAGE: Steve Whelerton with pupils at Staindrop Primary School on the new all-weather pitch
PUPILS at a Staindrop primary are delighted with their new all-weather sports pitch which means they can be active come rain or shine.
The idea for the year-round pitch, which can be used for tennis, cricket, football and netball, was to ensure social distancing can be maintained with sufficient outdoor space for the children.
The artifical pitch has been installed next to the playground and is used at break times, for sports and by after-school clubs. Steve Whelerton, headteacher, said: “During lockdown we were trying to think of ways we could assist the return of the children to the school.
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• 16 Apr 2021
NO-GO: The latest plans to build houses on part of the St Peter s site has been turned down
A PROPOSAL to build 39 homes on part of the former St Peter’s School site at Gainford has been rejected.
Kebbell Homes applied to build the houses on the part of the site it owns after failing to reach agreement with Ruttle Plant, which owns the former school buildings, to progress a previously approved, more comprehensive, plan.
That plan included converting the remaining school building into homes.
Planning officer Steve Pilkington told Durham County Council’s south and west planning committee last week that there had been six letters of objection to Kebbell Homes’ latest proposal.
PLANS to develop land at an abandoned former orphanage have suffered another setback. Proposals were agreed in 2019 to convert the ex-St Peter’s School site, in Gainford, County Durham, into homes, with further properties built on the wider site. Now, following the failure of different land owners to settle on a scheme, an alternative application for permission to start building work has also been knocked back. Speaking on behalf of the applicant, Steven Longstaff, a director at ELG Planning, a consultancy, said: “Since the [previous] approval, Kebbell Homes has tried very hard to agree a deal with the other land owner that would allow the site to be developed on a comprehensive basis.