Mount Oswald Golf Course in Durham has survived two attempts since 2008 to turn it into a business park and luxury homes.
Residents and politicians had successfully argued that the city had little green space and its roads were already congested. But such arguments are much less likely to succeed under the Government’s new “presumption in favour of sustainable development”.
Nigel Martin, a Liberal Democrat councillor whose ward includes the course, said he was concerned that the site could be overdeveloped and that the area lacked amenities.
“The number of houses in my division has already increased by 60 per cent in the past 25 years without any increase in facilities, such as play areas,” he said. “The number of shops has gone down and there is no community centre.”
But he admitted that Durham needed to make greater efforts to create jobs through development because the previous focus on reviving former coalmining areas had attracted few businesses.