This was the last day of the public inquiry into Stage V – the final stage – of Darlington’s £4.2 million inner ring road. Stage V was to start at Bondgate, smash through Salt Yard, cut Duke Street in half, whizz through Larchfield Street with huge sound baffles protecting the ears of Stanhope Road residents, and then bash its way through Coniscliffe Road to a mega-roundabout where Grange Road joins Victoria Road. It would have completed the circle started in the late 1960s, although the concept had blighted properties in the area since 1948.
‘This is the last chance for the townscape of Darlington,’ English Heritage’s barrister William Hicks told the government inspectors. ‘We urge you to cut off that noose and throw it away and allow enhancement to start.’
The inspectors delivered their historic rejection on 2 July 1990. It was the first time a road had been rejected on purely historic and environmental grounds, and is seen as a landmark case. The judgement further strained relations between Durham County Council, which had spent £625,000 buying land for the road, and Darlington Borough Council, which was at best lukewarm towards the project and was desperate for independence from Durham (it became a unitary authority in 1994). It also explains why Darlington has a ring road that doesn’t form a ring – or a noose.
(The Northern Echo, 1989–1990)