In the first three parts of this article, I’ve described how a small group of property developers is responsible for a rash of housing developments across the Tees Valley. These can be found in “Further Reading” at the end of this article. In this part, I’ll continue the story of the evolution of the Skerningham Garden Village project after the election of Ben Houchen as Tees Valley Mayor in May 2017.
It’s official
On 2 October 2017, Theakston Estates announced Skerningham Garden Village, “planned under the 19th century garden city philosophy; a self-contained village, with its own facilities, green spaces and good transport links into Darlington”. Although, to be fair, the 19th century garden city philosophers hadn’t heard of the internal combustion engine. Nothing of the sort was being planned, of course, and local campaigners immediately realised that this would be no more than a vast road-dependent housing estate.
Nothing to see here, move along
In September 2018, multimillionaire property mogul Ian Waller of Theakston Estates donated £5,000 to Ben Houchen.
A classic of modern literature
Waller’s donation may have cured any writer’s block that Ben Houchen’s was suffering from. In November 2018, the same month in which he reported his £5,000 donation from Ian Waller, Houchen wrote the gushing forward to “North Darlington, Skerningham. A Garden Community for Tees Valley.” Ben Houchen usually promises 20,000 imaginary new jobs for the Tees Valley, but he added a random extra £5,000 here. Why was 5,000 on his mind? We’ll never know.
Seal of approval
HM Government approved SGV on 28 June 2019. Darlington Council’s Conservative leader, Cllr Heather Scott was on-message: “Garden villages are about creating distinctive, carefully-planned places, which will help to drive forward the kind of inclusive growth Darlington needs.” A picture was taken of Cllr Scott, standing next to Ben Houchen, with Middlesbrough property guru Andy Preston on hand to chip in with his property-buying acumen.
Think big
Meanwhile, over in Hartlepool, multimillionaire property mogul Martin Corney’s soon-to-be Teesworks Joint Venture partner, multimillionaire property mogul Chris Musgrave, announced that he was going to be given a medal by the Queen for his contribution to the concrete and tarmac industry. Musgrave received his gong in January 2020, the same month that Wynyard Park, his planned new housing estate on the border of Hartlepool and Stockton, was granted Garden Village status. The Wynyard Park website noted that “garden villages are distinct, self-contained communities of 1,500 and 10,000 homes.” How many?
But what about Martin Corney’s garden village?
Don’t worry, Martin’s garden village was progressing too. In February 2020, Martin Corney’s son Chester teamed up with his brother-in-law Tom Carr to form TCC Plant Limited. Tom Carr is married to Martin Corney’s daughter, Elle. At this time, the company was based at Carr’s home at Clovis House Farm in Coatham Mundeville, about two miles away from Skerningham Woods. TCC Plant specializes in heavy construction machinery such as bulldozers and diggers. We’ll see these in action later on.
I’m rich beyond my wildest dreams
In July 2020, Martin Corney put the Tees Valley multimillionaire property mogul ‘A Team’ together. Darlington Garden Village Limited (DGVL) was registered at Companies House. Martin Corney and his business associate, multimillionaire property mogul Chris Harrison, would be directors. The company was registered at Ian Waller’s palatial villa, Southlands, in Eaglescliffe. Theakston Estates (Skerningham) Limited would be the “Relevant Legal Entity” behind DGVL and would own the one single share issued by the company.
This is normal
Two months after the set up of DGVL, on 10 September 2020, Ian Williams, the CEO of Darlington Borough Council was appointed as a director of the company. Six days later, Darlington Borough Council became a ‘person of significant control’ at DGVL. Companies House wasn’t notified of either of these changes until almost a year later, on 5 August 2021. Apparently the appointment was made to provide public oversight of the SGV project.
Schoolboy error
The day before this, on 4 August 2021, DGVL notified Companies House that a filing that it had made the month before had been incorrect. It had doubled its number of shares from one to two, and had notified Companies House that it had allocated the second share to Theakston Estates (Skerningham) Ltd. But, later the same day, it notified Companies House that, in reality, the second share had actually been allocated to Darlington Borough Council. It’s an easy mistake to make.
Keeping himself busy
Darlington Council CEO Ian Williams would later be appointed the director of another garden village project, West Park, on the other side of Darlington from Skerningham. In addition to this Williams was appointed as the director of seven other property companies. All of these companies, with the exception of DGVL, are registered at the headquarters of Esh Construction in Bowburn, County Durham. Darlington residents may have started to wonder if this is what they pay their council tax for.
Time for a quick side-order
In April 2021, Theakston Estates Ltd put in an application for 300 homes on Leven Road in Yarm. The familiar refrain was played again. Stockton Borough Council rejected the application, so Waller and Corney brought the usual big hitters to a December 2021 public inquiry: Christopher Katkowski CBE KC was instructed by, you guessed it, Chris Harrison BA (Hons) DipTP MRTPI. Harrison was acting as Managing Director of Theakston Land Ltd. This time, the planning inspector ruled in favour of the appellant property moguls.
Meanwhile, back at SGV
Fast forward to 2 February 2022, and planning inspector William Fieldhouse ruled that SGV was ‘sound in principle’. But Fieldhouse said that SGV had “a number of deficiencies in respect of soundness and legal compliance”, and recommended changes. The planning inspector also said that the Skerningham site was currently part of attractive countryside identified as a potential “jewel in the crown”. Fieldhouse has got me confused with these contradictory statements, but he’s not wrong about the attractive countryside.
Heather takes on the hedgerows
Darlington Council leader and bulldozer fan Cllr Heather Scott thought that William Fieldhouse’s rulings were “just technicalities about hedgerows and things like that, rights of way. But it doesn’t affect the overall plan for this development”. A photo was taken of Heather and Ben Houchen posing with Peter Gibson, a conviction politician who fervently supported Prime Minister Boris Johnson right throughout the Partygate scandal, but then ditched him when he knew that the writing was on the wall.
A fly in the ointment
Just one month after seemingly getting the go-ahead, a huge fly landed in the SGV ointment. On 16 March 2022, Natural England notified Darlington Council that the Teesmouth and Cleveland Coast Special Protection Area (SPA) was in an unfavourable condition. The council was advised to carefully consider the nutrient impacts of any new plans and projects in the River Tees Catchment, including new development proposals. My italics. Two months later, in an unrelated announcement, Cllr Heather Scott resigned as leader of Darlington Council. Coincidentally, Cllr Scott was pictured with Ben Houchen in that Northern Echo story.
Ask an expert. Or two
What to do about these pesky nutrient neutrality rules? Natural England was saying that each new home would add 2.4 new residents. For SGV, this would mean almost 11,000 extra people taking baths, flushing toilets, using washing machines and dishwashers, and overwhelming the River Tees. To counter this nightmare scenario, local authorities in the River Tees catchment area decided that, if you don’t like one expert opinion, you can get another one. They commissioned research by Opinion Research Services (ORS). The ORS report, published in April 2023, concluded that each new house would add 0.64 people, not the 2.4 people calculated by Natural England. Here’s an excerpt from the ORS report:
Phew, that was close
So thanks to the expert opinion of ORS, the vast new sprawling SGV would be a ghost town, with only 2,880 inhabitants in 4,500 homes. At this stage it might have been better to just rebuild and repopulate the deserted medieval village of Skerningham. A far smaller footprint than SGV, and less need for distributor roads all over the place. It’s worth a thought. Not many £1mn ‘Executive Homes’ though, and that’s the real point of a ‘garden village’
You’re moving out today
The neighbourhood was to have one fewer resident. Martin Corney left Skerningham Manor Farm in January 2023, and moved 3.5 miles away to Elstob Hall. Strangely enough, despite all of the home improvements, the farm had lost £100K in value since it first went on the market in 2021. On 28 January 2023, Darlington Golf Club voted against Corney’s proposal to buy the entire golf club site, and move the club to another site.
A tactical retreat?
On 6 August 2024, Chris Harrison’s Skerningham Estates Limited applied to Darlington Council with a much scaled back version of SGV. Only 450 homes this time, a Trojan Horse for the full SGV proposal of 4,500 houses. The new SGV would be split across two sites; these are shown in red outline on the map below. I’ve labelled them ‘Site A’ and ‘Site B’ for information purposes.
If a tree falls
‘Site A’ centres on Low Skerningham and Skerningham Manor. You’ll notice that Skerningham Woods plantation is included too. A reminder that this was created as part of the Tees Forest in 2004, and that Martin Corney received Forestry Commission grants to plant many of the trees here. This was on the condition that the trees couldn’t be felled for 20 years. That condition has now expired. ‘Site B’ centres on Barmpton Lane. The photo below shows the Barmpton Lane entrance to a footpath that leads down to the River Skerne. If the property moguls get their way, it won’t look like this for much longer:
Strategic purchase
Two months after the revised planning application was submitted, in October 2024, Theakston Estates (Darlington) Ltd bought Burdon Gardens for £2mn. This property can be seen on the above map, on the other side of the River Skerne from Site B. Burdon Gardens isn’t part of the scaled back version of SGV, but it still forms part of the much larger SGV Masterplan.
Jumping the gun
Despite Site B only being at the planning stage, the property moguls wanted to build a construction haul road from Bishopton Lane, through Burdon Gardens, and across the River Skerne, to get to it. The planning application for the haul road wouldn’t be submitted for another six months, but the boys from TCC Plant, including Martin Corney’s son Chester, were impatient. In March 2025, they descended on the scene at Burdon Gardens, felling trees and clearing hedgerows as part of ‘routine land management’.
He’s fallen in the water
What followed was several days of mayhem, as TCC Plant diggers ripped up trees and hedges, and turned the banks of the River Skerne into a quagmire resembling a First World War battlefield. The activity was so frenetic and ill-prepared that the riverbank gave way under one of the diggers, as can be seen in this photo of this incident, taken on 5 March 2025:
Bob the Builder. Can he fix it? No he can’t
The destruction was captured by a drone camera operated by Grecko Indie Media. It includes footage of the digger trying to claw its way out of the river, before having to be rescued by another machine. Were these shenanigans part of an undercover plan to build that haul road, or just overprivileged rich boys playing with their toys? Probably a bit of both.
Closing the stable door
Several weeks after the TCC Plant digger incident, on 29 April 2025, Chris Harrison applied to Darlington Council for permission to build the construction haul road. The Ecological Impact Assessment, which accompanied Chris Harrison’s planning application noted that:
Shocked, I tell you
So, one property mogul was reporting on damage inflicted by his cronies. But this was an uncanny echo of what had happened at Flatts Lane in Normanby a few years previously: The same people were now admitting that they had degraded potential otter habitat as part of ‘routine land management work’ in advance of submitting their planning application. The developers’ ecological report had also reported that there were no badgers present in the area. They were wrong about that too; local residents have filmed them:
Nature heals
This photo, taken in April 2026, shows the location where the TCC Plant digger got marooned in the River Skerne a year earlier. Much of the vegetation has recovered, but the riverbank is still scarred. Tonnes of sediment will have been released into the river here in March 2025. The Skerne flows into the River Tees a few miles south of here. The Tees Catchment will have been affected too. These people don’t give a hoot about nutrient neutrality.
Change at the top
Ian Williams retired as CEO of Darlington Council on 18 March 2025. This was in the aftermath of the carnage on the River Skerne, but wasn’t related to it. Williams relinquished all of his directorships except one. He remained as a director of Darlington Garden Village Limited until 10 June 2025. Darlington Council didn’t nominate anyone to replace Ian Williams until 9 April 2026, when Trevor Watson, Executive Director for Economy and Public Protection, was appointed. So, for over a year, Darlington Council was still legally a ‘person of significant control’ of DGVL, even though nobody from the council was involved with the company.
To be continued…
In the fifth part of this article, I’ll tell how our familiar local cabal of SGV property moguls is being challenged by an anonymous cabal of property moguls based in the tax haven of Guernsey.
Further reading
The gang of four: How a cabal of property moguls is laying waste to the Tees Valley
The gang of four: How a cabal of property moguls is laying waste to the Tees Valley (Part 2)
The gang of four: How a cabal of property moguls is laying waste to the Tees Valley (Part 3)
