Fellgate residents' green belt fear ahead of housing vote
Plans for up to 1,200 homes and spaces for businesses on green belt land are to be voted on by councillors.The development in Fellgate had been rejected at a South Tyneside Council planning meeting in October. But ahead of a meeting on Thursday to decide on the scheme, the council said it fell in line with the government's plans to accelerate housebuilding and make it easier to build on what it describes as "low-quality green belt land".Opponent Dave Green, from Save the Fellgate Green Belt, said: "We should want to save this beautiful piece of land. Losing this would be extremely detrimental to the area as a whole."
The council claims its Local Plan will provide people with "more access to affordable homes" and keep people in the local area. Councillor Margaret Meling, member for economic growth and transport, said: "The decision before us is now really quite stark."If the current plan is not approved and submitted to the Secretary of State before 12 March, we will have to go back to the drawing board and allocate land for 623 homes a year rather than 309."
'Continuously floods'
The current publication draft of the Local Plan, which has been subject to two statutory public consultations, proposes to remove 5% of land from South Tyneside's green belt, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.Nearly 3,000 people have signed a petition in the hopes of blocking plans.Campaigners argue the road network is not sufficient to support additional housing and the fields play an important role in protecting the neighbourhood from flooding.Mr Green said: "Congestion is already very bad round here and this would only add to that and this land continuously floods. Even today, there is surface water on the ground."This space is essential for people's mental health and wellbeing, people come down here to get away from it and it does mean so much to local residents."There are other areas where they could build."A decision is expected to be made at a council meeting on Thursday.
Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Leader Live
03-06-2025
- Leader Live
Planning application submitted for 900 new homes in Wrexham
An outline planning application has been submitted by Harworth Group to Wrexham Council for the proposed scheme on land known as Erlas Park - situated to the east of Cefn Road. The proposed site is located close to the Erlas Victorian Walled Garden and Wrexham Rugby Club, and is mainly made up of open grassland and a smaller area of woodland. The proposed site location. (Image: Planning documents) The site has been a key part of Plaid Cymru councillors' fight against the adoption of Wrexham Council's Local Development Plan (LDP). Last year, Cllr Marc Jones won a landmark Court of Appeal case over the controversial LDP. The Court of Appeal ruling quashed the High Court judgment of Mr Justice Eyre made in December 2023 and dismissed the controversial judicial review brought by developers seeking to force through a local plan rejected in April and June 2023 by a cross-party majority of Wrexham councillors. However, an outline planning application has now been submitted for around 900 homes on the site - 20 per cent of which would be designated affordable housing. A design and access statement submitted with the application says: "Erlas Park provides the opportunity to create an attractive, well-connected, high-quality mixed tenure residential neighbourhood with community infrastructure, greenspace and educational and recreational opportunities. "Erlas Park will serve to maximise and deliver the principles of sustainable placemaking for a new community to the east of Wrexham. The benefits of locating new housing growth directly adjacent to the main urban core of Wrexham is a logical and highly sustainable ambition." In terms of access, the design and access says: "Vehicular access to the site will be via Cefn Road, making use of the site frontage along the eastern side of this road. "Whilst the northern part of the site also has frontage with Bryn Estyn Road, it is not appropriate to form a vehicle access onto this road due to its more rural nature, however an emergency access point can be provided here. "Two primary points of access are proposed to serve the residential development: one at the northwestern parcel of the site and one at the south-western parcel of the site. A secondary southern access is also proposed to provide emergency access and additional permeability." (Image: Planning documents) The land to the north of Bryn Estyn Road, is referred to as 'KSS2 (north)' and is being promoted by Barratt and Bloor Homes for 600 new homes. The original application was refused permission in July 2020 and is subject of an outstanding planning appeal. MORE NEWS: The statement adds: "The proposals allow for the provision of a link road connecting the site to the wider KSS2 site allocation to the north to provide connectivity as per the requirements of the Local Plan policy relating to KSS2." There are also proposals for a 10km cycle track and 5km running route on the site. The application, which seeks permission on the broad principles of the development before detailed plans are submitted, will be considered by Wrexham Council at a later date.
BBC News
28-05-2025
- BBC News
Consultation expected on Medway draft local development plan
The latest draft of a document outlining how Medway will develop in the coming years could soon be Council's cabinet is expected to approve the required six-week consultation period for the published plan - a major document designating what land will be used for and assessing infrastructure needs - on 3 plans typically last 15 years, but the last time the council approved one was 2003, according to the Local Democracy Reporting attempts to approve a local plan failed and the current council administration says it is a priority to put a new one in place before 2027. The latest version of the document follows feedback from Medway residents and businesses in a previous councillors vote to proceed with the process, the plan will be published on 26 June and six-week consultation will commence before it is submitted to the government for approved by the secretary of state on schedule, the local plan will be in place until a local plan, councillors have less power to reject planning voted down a motion in April about the future of Chatham Docks, which is covered by the plan, after suggestions it could collapse Medway Council's local plan over proposals for the docks have caused issued for previous attempts to get a local plan approved.
BBC News
23-05-2025
- BBC News
Sheffield's Local Plan: What it means for you
Campaigners gathered outside Sheffield Town Hall earlier this month to protest against plans to build on 14 green belt sites in the the Town Hall, councillors were voting to give the go-ahead to the proposals, which are a part of what is known as the Local Plan - a blueprint for the development of the city in the next decade and details of the Local Plan first emerged, thousands of residents across Sheffield have joined together to campaign against why has the Local Plan become such a contentious and controversial issue - and what will it actually mean for communities in the city? What is a Local Plan? The Local Plan examines how a town or city will develop over the next 15 years. In it, a council designates land to be used for housing, industry or green Sheffield does not have a Local Plan. The last one was in 2009, based on documents produced in 1998, and the new plan has been repeatedly postponed for many 14 May, councillors voted for the first stage of a new Local Plan which, in total, could see nearly 40,000 new homes constructed in Sheffield by single party is in overall control of the authority, so Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party all worked together to choose the Douglas Johnson, chairman of the housing committee, said: "Sheffield's current Local Plan is extremely out of date and this leaves lots of loopholes open for developers to exploit. "Without a new one, ultimately the government could step in and set its own plan, which would be much worse for the city." Why is Sheffield's Local Plan so controversial? As total of 3,539 new houses, as well as schools, cemeteries and industrial units, have now been approved by councillors for 14 green belt have said they are worried not just about the loss of green space, but the new infrastructure needed for hundreds of homes and Nutbrown, a campaigner from Chapeltown, said there had been very little information. "It's extremely frustrating. It feels as if it's totally been forced upon us," she City Council has said it had exhausted all its brownfield sites, but even after building on the 14 proposed sites, 96% of the green belt would remain untouched and of the earmarked sites are in areas which are key election battlegrounds, such as Woodhouse, where the Lib Dems won by just 10 votes in a recent by-election, while in West Ecclesfield the Lib Dems won by only 78 votes in 2024. What's happening in my neighbourhood? The majority of the sites which have been given the go-ahead are in the S35 and S13 postcodes, which has angered some residents who have said the developments should be more spread out across the in Handsworth have collected a 3,700-signature petition, and protest groups have also been formed in Wharncliffe Side, Ecclesfield and than 1,730 homes are planned in Handsworth, and Sheffield South East Labour MP Clive Betts has written to the Planning Inspectorate asking for a fairer said: "Handsworth currently faces over 40% of the new allocation of housing on green belt. I am not convinced these proposals are fair."Sheffield City Council has said it would look at whether other areas of the city could be brought forward so there was a fairer distribution of houses. Why does Sheffield need so many houses? The government has said it wanted to see 1.5 million new homes built across the country by 2029 in a bid to solve the housing crisis and boost economic total, Sheffield is expected to see the construction of 38,000 new homes and 655 acres (265 hectares) of employment land, with Sheffield City Council saying tens of thousands of new jobs would be created up to leader Tom Hunt said: "Sheffield has not been building enough homes for a long time, and to tackle the housing crisis you need a plan."We don't want to build tiny box homes that are no good for families - and the golden rule is sites must have affordable homes." How can I have my say? A public consultation has been launched by Sheffield City Council and will run until the middle of responses will be reviewed by government will then be a series of public hearings in the will then publish a preliminary report with further public consultation early in are expected to issue a final report and the council will decide whether to adopt the Local Plan in July individual development would then need to go through the normal planning process. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
