St Helen Auckland Reclamation Site, Bishop Auckland, DL14 9AE

Durham County Council (‘D C C’) offers for sale by informal tender the site of the St Helen Auckland Reclamation Site. The site, in total, extends to approximately 16,786 sq.m./4.148 -acres/1.68 -hectares.

Location:
The site is situated in St Helen Auckland, approximately 2 miles southwest of Bishop Auckland town centre in County Durham. It is situated on the A688 West Auckland bypass, providing good transport links to regional trunk routes.
There is a local train station in the town centre and public transport is available by bus. There are East Coast main-line train stations at Durham (13 miles 21km) located to the northeast and Darlington to the southeast.
The surrounding area has seen significant retail development, including Auckland Retail Park and major stores such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and Lidl. The site is located adjacent to Bishop Auckland Football Ground. Public transport is available via local bus services, with mainline rail connections at Durham and Darlington.

Site:
The site is situated in St Helen Auckland, approximately 2 miles southwest of Bishop Auckland town centre in County Durham. The site is located adjacent St Helens Industrial Estate to the North and West, Bishop Auckland Football Club to the East and agricultural land to the South across the A688 bypass.
Description
The site comprises grassed reclamation land surrounded by tree belts. Historically a brownfield area, the site was previously St Helens Colliery and has since been cleared and levelled. The majority of the site is grass-covered, while the perimeter is defined by tree belts.

Planning:
For the avoidance of doubt, the site is not subject of planning permission for development. It will be the responsibility of the successful party to procure a planning permission for development.

Pre-application Advice Report:
On 1st August 2025, Durham County Council Planning Team issued a Pre-application Advice Report, which details the potential for the development of the site.
The report concludes: -
‘It is considered that the site falls within the Employment Allocations Land within South Durham St Helens Auckland Industrial Estate site. Policy 2 of the C D P sets out that undeveloped land and plots at the following employment sites and at proposed extensions to these existing employment sites, as shown on the policies map, are allocated for B 1 (Business), B 2 (General Industrial) and B 8 (Storage and Distribution) unless specifically stated.’
A copy of the report can be found within the Information Pack.
We would recommend that pre-application advice is sought from the L P A by any interested parties.

Tenure and Possession:
D C C owns the free (title absolute) of the site being offered for sale. It is registered with the Land Registry under the title numbers: D U 283448.
A right of access will be retained in favour of D C C for the adjoining land to the East.
Price on application/offers invited.
Offers are invited on a conditional basis (conditional on grant of planning permission for development).