Darlington East Street office consultation opens

Darlington residents invited to shape 50,000 sq ft East Street office plan

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A public drop-in on 21 October and online survey will gather views before the partnership submits a planning application this winter.

By The Tees Editorial Desk · 20 October 2026

Darlington Library on Crown Street, beside the East Street area proposed for new offices Image: peter robinson / Geograph Britain and Ireland / CC BY-SA 2.0Image source CC BY-SA 2.0

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Darlington residents can see proposals for more than 50,000 sq ft of new town-centre office space at a on Wednesday 21 October. The drop-in session runs from 3pm to 7pm at the Dolphin Centre, with an online questionnaire open until Friday 6 November.

What is proposed for East Street

Darlington Borough Council and development partner Cityheart want to build the offices on the former Sports Direct site, south of East Street and behind Darlington Library. The material describes this as the first phase of a wider commercial area intended to sit alongside the Darlington Economic Campus on Brunswick Street.

The current outline includes Grade A workspace, a building designed to achieve BREEAM Excellent environmental , internal cycle storage and brick detailing intended to reflect nearby buildings. Plans also show new footways, seating and public space designed to improve access towards the River Skerne and connections with the rest of the town centre.

A separate element concerns the former Wilko building on the north side of East Street. Cityheart says that building would be demolished and the land used as an interim surface car park, including electric vehicle charging and accessible bays, while a later phase of the is developed. That later use has not yet been fixed.

Why this part of town is changing

The site is close to the government office now under construction on Brunswick Street. The Government Property Agency said in August that the five-storey hub was due to open in the first quarter of 2028 and would support more than 1,600 civil servants. Its latest project update says six departments will be based in the new building, while the wider Darlington Economic Campus includes other departments already working elsewhere in the town.

Darlington Council approved funding in June to allow the East Street office project to move towards planning. At that stage, the council capacity for about 500 workspaces and said planning approval would be the next formal hurdle. No occupiers have been announced, so the employment figures describe the building’s proposed capacity rather than confirmed new jobs.

How to have a say

Members of the project team will be at the Dolphin Centre event to explain the proposal and collect comments. People who cannot attend can use the questionnaire on Cityheart’s consultation page. The published programme points to a in December 2026, a decision in spring 2027, construction beginning in winter 2027 and completion in summer 2029.

Cityheart has also published a site plan and project details alongside the questionnaire. That gives residents a chance to look at the building’s position, links to the river and the interim parking proposal before responding, rather than commenting only on the broad principle of new offices.

What remains undecided

Those dates are targets, not permissions or contracts. The office design must still go through consultation and the planning process, and the consultation page does not identify tenants or publish a final construction cost. Feedback closes on 6 November, before the team says it will prepare the application for submission this winter.