A PARISH council leader has said there is not enough room for any more houses in her village.

Coun Doris Jones, who chairs Middleton St George Parish Council has said more services need to be provided in the village before any more homes can be built.

She said the village had nearly doubled in size in recent years and until more facilities were made available no more houses should be built.

Coun Jones, who is also a borough councillor, said she would be calling for a moratorium on house building in the Local Development Framework.

She told the parish council: "The increase in infrastructure has not matched the increase in population in my opinion.

"I've asked that Darlington Borough Council take action to improve car parking and children's open play space - the need for which has been generated by the massive building taking place.

"I'd like to think that this year construction traffic through the village has ended and will enable us to begin to start work to make our village look less like a building site."

New estates built at Middleton St George have included 102 homes built by Wimpey at the site of the former Hadley's Ironworks, and estates built at Heathfield and High Stell.

Coun Jones added: "These have all got 100 or more houses.

"When I moved here in 1986, the population was about 1,800 and it's now nearly 5,000, which is all just new development. We used to have a lot of little factories that employed people but these have gone and it's very difficult for us to prevent the houses being built as they are brownfield sites.

"These are all people with young families and I just feel that nobody was looking at the whole picture."

Coun Jones has asked the borough council to incorporate the village plan into its local development framework.

The village plan has been made with the consultation of residents and sets out the way residents would like to see the village develop.

A spokesman for Darlington Borough Council said: "We're more than happy to work with the parish council and discuss these issues with them."