Her ancestors' woodland paths will be safe. (If possible, that is.)

A river runs through Skerningham, our tranquil, unique and irreplaceable idyll of country walks, green acres, food crops, hedgerows and woodland.

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Bees love it. So do skylarks, deer, owls, foxes, butterflies, hares, badgers, bats, fieldfares, otters, hedgewarblers, rabbits, woodpeckers, waterboatmen, frogs and large numbers of Darlington people.

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Most of the above can’t cope with change. Almost all would scarper from the noise and disruption of any nearby housebuilding if they could. Especially if it went on and on for decades, with thousands and thousands of newbuilds materialising at the bottom of their street.

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So it’s unfortunate that a pair of developers, along with Darlington Council and the Mayor of Tees Valley, plan at least 3,700 expensive, big dwellings there, with 1,650 of them to be  finished by the year 2036. In fact, they fancy building on and on in the future, perhaps up to around 10,000 (houses, not years). That’s not a “garden village”, which is what they are calling the thing, it’s a small town. It’s the size of the new towns which the Government wants to build all over Britain.

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Let’s just talk about the first 4,500 for now, though. Most of those houses will have at least three or four bedrooms each, so the total number of people living in Skerningham Garden

illage won’t be far short of Northallerton’s 16,000-plus. You can envisage the scale, then.

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You can also hazard a guess at what market forces will do to the value of your own home.

But you’ll want to know more about Skerningham Garden Village in case you might decide to move there.

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But orchards, though! There will be orchards!

Developers Martin Corney and Ian Waller have set up a company, Theakston Ltd, to handle the project. Theakston says the houses will be split into small clusters (so don’t call it an “estate”), joined up by a “distributor road” which will “avoid the woodland as far as possible”.

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After the public consultation, the design code for the estate didn’t say “as far as possible” as it had become crystal-clear that people wanted the trees to be safe. So the council decreed that the road would “avoid the woodland”. Theakston objected so it was changed.

 

When the public found out, lots of people wanted it to be changed back again but the council said that would be illegal and they would do anything for love of the public but they won’t do that. Who is to specify what is “possible” is not specified.

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Theakston promise doctors, a shop, school, pub and community centre at some point but possibly not immediately. And orchards. There will be orchards at some point.

What there won’t be are the old, safe, quiet habitats that have nurtured generation after generation of critters. Yes, including humans.

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If you want to “develop” a garden village you have to get a survey done to show that there will be a “Biodiversity Net Gain”. Theakston did that to the council’s satisfaction. The survey said the odd tree and hedgerow might have to go but they would plant more, plus better grass, some bushes and orchards.

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The report didn’t mention wildlife. It contains not one word about skylarks, deer, owls, foxes, butterflies, hares, badgers, bats, fieldfares, otters, hedgewarblers, rabbits, woodpeckers, waterboatmen, frogs or people. Nor does it explain how they will see a net gain once the bulldozers move in or forever after.

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In fact, the report says: “All existing habitats are expected to be lost.” And “No habitat enhancement is proposed for the existing site habitats…”

But orchards, my friends! There will be orchards! At some point.

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 There’s lots more to tell. We’ll be telling it as this website continues to be developed.