In Part 1 of this series, I focused on one of the Tees Valley property moguls, Martin Corney, and his plans for a huge housing estate called Skerningham Garden Village (SGV). You can read Part 1 here. This article will tell of one particular strip of tarmac, the Darlington North Link Road (DNLR), and its links to the SGV project.
Bypassing Darlington
The DNLR was initially known as the Darlington North Bypass. It’s been in planning since the Darlington South Bypass was completed in 1985, but funding had never been made available. The bypass would allow freight traffic to travel between industrial Teesside, in particular Tees Port, and the north of the region, without having to cut through the northern suburbs of Darlington. It would achieve this by connecting Junction 59 of the A1(M) Durham Motorway with the A66 at Little Burdon roundabout.
Preferred route
Shortly after Ben Houchen’s victory in the 2017 Tees Valley mayoral election, he decided that the DNLR would go ahead. But Houchen also announced, on the same day, that a second Tees crossing would be built parallel to the A19 in Stockton, and that 25,000 jobs would be created in the Tees Valley. Nine years later, none of these things are close to happening. But, to create the illusion of activity, Ben Houchen announced a consultation on possible routes for the DNLR. Surveyors created two potential routes for the DNLR, imaginatively titled Route A and Route B.
We value your opinion
A series of engagement events was held across the Darlington, asking members of the public to comment on their preferred option. The two routes can be seen on the map below:
Clumsy
Of the two options, Route B would have carved through two woodlands and obliterated the unexcavated remains of the deserted medieval village of Skerningham. This picture shows a remnant of that village, which was located between Skerningham Manor and Low Skerningham. The characteristic ‘ridge and furrow’ medieval farming strips can be made out on the right hand side.
A wise choice
On 23 December 2017, The TVCA announced that Route A would be the preferred route. Bev Hutchinson, Chair of the Barmpton and Skerningham Action Group was relieved. She said: “Local residents were extremely concerned when these plans were unveiled. Whilst most people agree a new road is needed, it needs to have minimum impact on our environment and communities”. But local residents needn’t have worried either way, at least for now. The TVCA’s bid to obtain funding for the DNLR via the Housing Infrastructure Fund was always a long shot, and it came to nothing.
Roadbuilder General
As Ben Houchen sought re-election in a 2021 mayoral campaign delayed by the Covid pandemic, he reached for his box of empty promises. Darlington would get its DNLR.
Ben Houchen calls a spade a spade
As Ben Houchen sought re-election in a 2024 mayoral campaign not delayed by the Covid pandemic, he reached for that box of empty promises again. Funding was in place for the DNLR, and there would be spades in the ground within two years. Here’s a reminder of when Houchen said exactly the same thing about the ill-fated Gresham project in Middlesbrough, with similar results. This time the imaginary DNLR would cost £250mn. But, as I have shown here, the funding wasn’t in place, and there wouldn’t be spades in the ground within two years. When will people wise up to this chicanery?
Consultants on the ground, but no spades in it
In August 2024, the Tees Valley’s favourite illusionist was at it again. The TVCA announced that Jacobs Consultants would waste time by providing an ‘Options Assessment Report’ (OAR) for the DNLR. Six months later, In February 2025, the TVCA Cabinet was told that the OAR was underway, but that ‘updated cost estimates will be obtained through initial development work’.
Rome wasn’t built in a day
So, wind the clock forward to 31 August 2025, and the BBC Tees mayoral phone-in. Houchen confirmed that the DNLR was still under review, but told caller Leanne from Darlington “I think we’re beyond that point because Darlington Council, a number of months ago adopted and approved at their full council meeting a masterplan for the north of Darlington development which included many, many houses being built in north Darlington and that Masterplan actually shows and is approved by Darlington Council the DNLR that goes through that development (SGV).”
Spot the difference
The SGV Masterplan was prepared by billing experts Nathaniel Lichfields and Partners, on behalf of Skerningham Estates Ltd and Banks Property Ltd. The Masterplan doesn’t mention the DNLR but refers to a distributor road. So, what’s the difference?
- The DNLR would be a fast dual carriageway, connecting Junction 59 of the A1(M) with the A66 at Little Burdon roundabout, with no intersections en route.
- The distributor road would be a local road running from the north west to south east through SGV, to connect its myriad of housing estates, shops and community facilities. The northern end of the distributor road isn’t planned to connect directly with the A1(M) at Junction 59, but with the A167, 2,200 metres (about 1.4 miles) south of the motorway junction. At the southern end, no direct connection with the A66 either, but an extra roundabout 300 metres west of the existing one at Little Burdon.
- A combined DNLR and distributor road would negate any benefits to existing users compared to the existing route. Lorry drivers, and the rest of the road users, would need to comply with a 40 mph speed limit, and negotiate six roundabouts. Local residents would be subject to extra traffic danger, and noise and air pollution. Traffic jams that routinely plague places such as Haughton Le Skerne would simply be shifted a mile to the north; and traffic generated by the 4,500 houses at SGV would place additional strain on the already overworked A167.
- But the compromise would be a big win for the property moguls. The combination distributor road/DNLR would be funded, not by the moguls, but by the Department for Transport (DfT), to the tune of £250mn.
What does the map say?
Here’s a map of the current proposals. The original 2017 choice for the DNLR, “Route A” can be seen to the right. The ‘distributor road’ can be seen to the left:
Are you absolutely sure about this, Ben?
After that BBC Radio phone-in, worried locals contacted Darlington Council. At a meeting of Darlington Council Cabinet, the leader of the Greens, Cllr Matthew Snedker, asked Council leader Stephen Harker if he would clarify what Ben Houchen meant when he said that the council had “signed-off on” a decision to route the DNLR through SGV. Cllr Harker replied “I was as shocked by what Houchen said. There was no decision on the DNLR route at council or cabinet. I don’t know why he said what he said and I’m more than happy to set minds at rest.” One official said that “the mayor is talking out of his ****”. Some of us have been saying this for years.
Rinse and repeat
More than a year after the OAR was announced, and seven months since the last no-news bulletin, the 25 September 2025 TVCA Cabinet meeting was provided with an identical update to the February one. What was Jacobs Consulting doing with that OAR?
We’re getting impatient now
March 2026 brought another Tees Valley Mayoral Question Time, this time at Mowden Park Rugby Club in Darlington. The Northern Echo’s Chris Lloyd asked Ben Houchen how the DNLR was progressing. His reply dismayed the people of Skerningham: “The advice that I’m getting from officials is that, because of what Darlington has done, it makes it very difficult to deliver what I think people originally intended” Houchen was referring to “Route A”, agreed back in 2017. “Because of the Masterplan that the council had adopted, they have a road through the middle of their Masterplan, and so when I’m told by officials, they say, look, if we want to build this big round here, the DFT will say no.”
Authentic frontier gibberish
As Easter 2026 approached, the TVCA Cabinet convened its usual quarterly meeting on 20 March 2026. Surely, there’d be news on the DNLR? Newly minted Director of Infrastructure Jonathan Spruce produced a draft Local Transport Development Plan (LTDP). The good news about the DNLR was that the scheme met the threshold for HM Government retention of business case decisions, “but will be managed at a investment programme theme level” (sic). Oddly enough, there was no talk of those “updated cost estimates” mentioned in August 2024, nor of the Options Assessment Report that Jacobs started preparing almost two years previously.
This wasn’t what we agreed
Spruce’s draft LTDP went on “This project is currently being developed alongside proposals for the SGV and opportunities for the delivery of common infrastructure will be explored to ensure the best option for the growth of the area is taken forward.” Common infrastructure? I thought we had an agreement that we weren’t going to combine the DNLR with the distributor road? Concerned locals contacted Stephen Harker. Harker confirmed that the TVCA had had to restart the Options Assessment Report due to the ‘time lapse’, but this report was now imminent. Stephen Harker confirmed that “this is revisiting all routes at a high level”, whatever that means. Let’s hope that the TVCA isn’t paying Jacobs the same hourly rate as Lichfields.
A courageous decision
If the DNLR is being greenlighted this time, it will swallow up almost half of the TVCA’s infrastructure budget for the four years of the Medium Term Financial Plan. And that’s not even taking into account 27 months of cost inflation. As Sir Humphrey Appleby of ‘Yes Minister’ might say, it would be a courageous decision to spend almost half of the TVCA’s hard-pressed public funding on a road scheme that could have been paid for by Teesside’s property moguls
Sting in the tail
Ten days after the TVCA Cabinet meeting, Ben Houchen decided to over-ride the draft LTDP that the cabinet had just approved, and decided to prioritise £100mn in road schemes at his pet Teesworks project in Redcar. None of which meet the threshold for HM Government retention of business case decisions. Has Houchen redlighted the DNLR again?
Questionnaire
So, residents of north east Darlington and, indeed, across the whole Tees Valley, are left with some unanswered questions:
- Why is Darlington Council leader Stephen Harker telling Skerningham residents that the DNLR and the distributor road are two separate projects, while simultaneously approving a draft LTDP that says that they will share common infrastructure?
- Why has Ben Houchen spent nine years promising the people of Darlington and south County Durham the DNLR, but reneged on this promise at every opportunity?
- Do Ben Houchen’s statements about the DNLR and the distributor road amount to “pre-determination” of the outcome of the Options Assessment Review? Because, if they do, the eventual decision on the route could be subject to a legal challenge.
- Why does the Teesworks project get priority time and again for infrastructure spending, at the expense of the rest of the Tees Valley?
All is calm
Meanwhile, down in Skerningham Woods, the only sound you can hear is birdsong. Enjoy it while you can.
