Former Darlington cattle market site to become car park

The site has been cleared after the cattle market moved to the outskirts of Darlington

The site of a former cattle market will become a temporary car park for a railway station, a council said.

Darlington Farmers Auction Mart had been in Clifton Road since 1878 but was moved to Humbleton Farm in 2021.

Darlington Borough Council has approved plans to turn the site into a 455-space car park for use while nearby Darlington railway station is expanded.

Two people objected but the council said a car park would create less noise than the old market did.

The station is undergoing a £100m development which will create three new platforms, a new station building and a 672-space multi-storey car park.

But while that is being built, about 400 spaces will be lost from existing sites during the works, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Darlington Station is set to undergo a major development

The temporary car park will be run 24 hours a day seven days a week by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) between summer 2022 and December 2024.

Letters of objection raised issues of air pollution, trees, on-street parking, pedestrian access, anti-social behaviour, noise and light pollution, and business rates.

An environmental health officer said the proposed car park would "create significantly less noise than the previous use of the site as a livestock market".

British Transport Police raised measures to bring into the scheme to reduce potential for anti-social behaviour by "designing out crime".

These cover areas like CCTV, lighting, access, parking bay markings, height restrictors and bike parking.