DEVELOPERS have been granted an extended deadline to use a controversial temporary access road, despite reservations about the firm’s workmanship.

At this week’s Tynedale Local Area Council meeting, Blue Sky Resorts was given permission to use a temporary road into Heathergate Country Park, at Lowgate, until August to finish work to expand the site from 40 to 79 caravans.

The previous permission expired last August but, for various reasons, the new application had taken six months to come before the council.

A handful of county councillors and residents raised concerns at the meeting that the applicants had failed to meet planning guidelines in the past and feared the same would happen if an extension was agreed.

However, councillors did agree to grant the permission and said it hoped it would spur the developers on to complete the work.

Coun. Ian Hutchinson, for Haltwhistle, said the temporary route would prevent large vehicles from using a narrow access between two houses in Lowgate.

He said: “In my mind, it seems to me a waste of time to refuse it. If this application is refused, the mess going up the narrow road to get that site finished would be ridiculous.”