Durham County Council today passed the County Plan. Labour councillors ignored concerns from opposition councillors that the plan was deeply flawed.

The plan will see 5000 houses built on the land around Framwellgate Moor and Pity Me causing environmental destruction to the greenbelt.

The plan will now go for examination in public where it is expected many local councillors and groups will put forward views that the plan is unacceptable.

We pushed to get Labour to recognise that the plan was unacceptable but they have refused to listen. I am absolutely appalled by the Labour Party at today’s meeting.

They even altered the plan so that thousands of executive homes will not have to be carbon neutral and properly energy efficient. So the houses to be built in the coming years will not only be more expensive to run, they will be polluting too. Bizarrely Labour then voted through their sustainability strategy half an hour later which states the aim to cut carbon emissions by 80%. By allowing houses to be built which are not as energy efficient, this makes it almost impossible to achieve this goal.

So we now know that in County Durham, the Labour Party couldn’t care less about the environment and is only interested in handing power to developers. Durham Council is in the pockets of the developers who will build whatever they want wherever they want if Labour gets its way.

I recently asked for a list of all the people who had been wined and dined in the box the council pays for at the Cricket Ground in Chester-le-Street. A huge proportion of the guests were developers and associated people, but not one member of an environmental group, wildlife trust or other such organisation. The council has spent thousands of pounds cosying up to developers and now has passed a County Plan which is an open charter to built all over our greenbelt – it really disgusts me.