PLAN YOUR BOROUGH…
Planning the Future of South Tyneside Shaping Our Future: The New Development Plan for Your Borough
Local Plan Growth Options and Strategic Land Review – Consultation Results
October 2016
Forward Planning Team Development Services South Tyneside Council, Town Hall and Civic Offices, Westoe Road, South Shields, Tyne & Wear NE33 2RL
Telephone: (0191) 424 7688 E-mail: [email protected] Visit: www.southtyneside.gov.uk/localplan
Contents
Section Page Growth Options and Strategic Land Review Consultation 1 Next Steps 5 Summary of the General Approach to Preparing the Local Plan and the Strategic Land Review 6 Summary of Key Findings 7
Part 1: Homes, Jobs, Environment… 10 Q1: Which of the three growth options do you think we should plan for over the next 20 years? 10 Q2: The Main Reasons for Why People Chose their Preferred Option in Question 1 11
Part 2: Where Will Development Go? 12 * See separate Character Area summary annex documents: Inner South Shields Character Area Outer South Shields Character Area Jarrow Character Area Hebburn Character Area Fellgate & Hedworth Character Area Boldons & Cleadon Character Area Whitburn Character Area Additional and Amended Sites Submitted for Consideration 13 * See separate annex document
Appendix A: Supplementary and Equality Questions 14
Growth Options and Strategic Land Review Consultation
Our ambition is for South Tyneside to be an outstanding place to live, invest and bring up families. To help deliver this we are preparing a new Local Plan for South Tyneside. This new statutory development plan will set the planning policy basis for assessing all planning applications and development proposals in the borough over the next 20 years.
New housing and business can bring economic growth and social benefits for everyone, providing enough homes and jobs for our children and supporting investment in the regeneration of our towns and villages. However more development can have a greater impact upon our greenspaces and environment, and we want to ensure we protect our most valuable habitats and maintain enough greenspaces too.
Introduction
Further to previous public consultation on a range of initial key issues and options to inform the new Local Plan in early 2013, and on the potential high level ‘conceptual’ growth options in summer 2015, further in-depth ‘You’re your Borough’ public consultation on the potential scale of growth and the possible development potential of land all across the borough took place between 9 May - 31 July 2016 (originally proposed to run until 30 June, but extended for a month due to public demand).
This consultation focused on our draft Strategic Land Review assessment of possible site options that might be suitable or have potential to help meet our future growth and development needs, and incorporated a comprehensive Green Belt review.
Given that less than 200 people had engaged with the previous growth options consultation during summer 2015, as part of this consultation it was also considered appropriate to provide a further opportunity for people to consider the alternative growth options in the context of South Tyneside’s alternative Objectively Assessed Needs growth scenarios and topic papers coupled with the draft Strategic Land Review assessment of sites’ potential. The growth options consultation had sought to focus on some of the key ‘trade-offs’ we need to consider in seeking to provide sufficient housing and job opportunities for our forecast growing population. This sought to understand the relative importance people placed on the needs to provide for more homes, job opportunities and investment in local services and infrastructure improvements on the one hand, weighed up against the desires to protect the best of our natural environment, open spaces and the Green Belt on the other.
The ‘Plan Your Borough’ consultation was widely publicised with leaflets about the Strategic Land Review sent to every residence in South Tyneside according to their local character area, as well as to those just across the borough boundaries in east Gateshead and north Sunderland in agreement with our neighbouring Local Planning Authorities. Posters and plasma screen displays about the consultation were also advertised in council offices, libraries, leisure centres, health centres and GP surgeries across the borough, with a press release article published in the local Shields Gazette newspaper and on the council’s website at the start of the consultation period, and in the council’s residents’ newsletter in June 2016. All consultees previously registered on our Local Plan mailing database were sent either e-mail or hard copy letters also including our Local Plan e-Newsletter. 1
All consultation information was published on South Tyneside Council’s community website (using the quick URL link www.southtyneside.gov.uk/planyourborough), including the Strategic Land Review character area sites assessments, maps and site-based sustainability appraisals, together with an online SurveyMonkey consultation questionnaire. Printed copies of the general questionnaire and SLR site-specific questionnaires were also made available at council offices and libraries, as well as at consultation events, together with copies of all the Strategic Land Review site assessments documents. Supporting evidence base topic papers on population and housing, economic growth and employment, Green Belt and Landscape, plus a summary of our alternative objectively assessed needs growth scenarios, were also made available on the website’s Local Plan page for consideration.
A consultation launch event presentation for statutory Duty to Co-operate consultees and developers/consultants took place at the Quadrus Business Centre on Tuesday 10 May 2016. Public consultation exhibition drop-in events around the borough were then held at the following venues (with dates/times):
Tuesday 24 May 4 - 7pm Jarrow Library - Cambrian Street, Jarrow NE32 3QN Tuesday 31 May 6 - 8pm Cleadon Village Hall - Sunderland Road, Cleadon SR6 7UR Thursday 2 June 3.45 - 5.15pm Jarrow & Boldon Colliery CAF - Jarrow Town Hall, Grange Road, Jarrow NE32 3LE Thursday 2 June 5.45 - 8pm East Shields & Whitburn CAF - St. Gregory's Church Hall, South Shields NE34 6NR Saturday 4 June 10am - 1pm Cleadon Park Library - 10 Prince Edward Road, South Shields NE34 8PS Sunday 5 June 11am - 2pm Haven Point Leisure Centre - Pier Parade, South Shields NE33 2JS Monday 6 June 9am - 12 noon Hebburn CAF - Hebburn Central, Glen Street, Hebburn NE31 1AB Tuesday 7 June 5 - 7pm Hedworthfield Community Centre - Cornhill, Jarrow NE32 4QD Wednesday 8 June 2 - 5pm Lukes Lane Community Centre - Marine Drive, Hebburn NE31 2BA Thursday 9 June 5 - 8pm Riverside CAF - Haven Point Leisure Centre, Pier Parade, South Shields NE33 2JS Monday 13 June 4 - 7pm Whitburn Library - Mill Lane, Whitburn SR6 7EN Thursday 16 June 9am - 12 noon West Shields, Cleadon & East Boldon CAF - Harton & Westoe Collieries Welfare Ground, Low Lane, South Shields NE34 0NA Thursday 16 June 5 - 8pm East Boldon Junior School - North Lane, East Boldon, Tyne & Wear, NE36 0DL Tuesday 21 June 5 - 7pm Hedworthfield Community Centre - Cornhill, Jarrow NE32 4QD Thursday 23 June 5 - 8 pm East Boldon Junior School - North Lane, East Boldon, Tyne & Wear, NE36 0DL Friday 24 June 6 - 8pm Boldon Village Hall - North Road, Boldon Colliery NE35 9AR Saturday 25 June 12noon - 4pm South Shields Charity Fayre - Bents Park, South Shields Monday 27 June 6 - 8pm Hebburn Central - Glen Street, Hebburn NE31 1AB Tuesday 28 June 10am - 12noon Perth Green Community Centre - Inverness Road, Jarrow NE32 4AQ
Presentations were given at each of the borough’s five councillor-led Community Area Forums during early June 2016, with additional presentations given to residents in East Boldon (16 June) and Cleadon (11 July) to help meet significant local demand in those particular areas. Several hundred local residents attended the East Boldon and Cleadon presentation Q&A events. 2 A series of local focus group roundtable discussions were then arranged during July based upon the level of demand in different parts of the borough from those who had registered an interest in attending them to discuss details of the Strategic Land Review site assessments for key sites in those areas:
Monday 4 July 7 - 9pm East Boldon Tuesday 5 July 6 - 8pm Cleadon Thursday 7 July 5 - 7pm Cleadon Park, South Shields Tuesday 12 July 6 - 8pm Whitburn Thursday 21 July 6 - 8pm Fellgate, Jarrow
Overall, these events saw over 2,000 people engage with the Local Plan consultation, either by attending events to discuss their views with council officers, and/or responding via the questionnaire or by e-mail or letter – more than 4,300 representations were received. Three-quarters of questionnaire respondents requested to be kept informed and notified about future stages of consultation.
The Strategic Land Review consultation saw local campaign groups set up by local residents (including websites and social media) to object to the possibility of any development on mainly Green Belt sites in the East Boldon (‘Keep Boldon Green’), Cleadon (‘Keep Cleadon Green’) and Whitburn areas (‘Keep Whitburn Green’), while the Whitburn & Cleadon Juniors Football Club also mobilised local residents to specifically object to the possibility of any development on the Cleadon Lane playing fields in Whitburn. These campaigns generated about a dozen press articles in the local Shields Gazette and Sunderland Echo newspapers, as well as in the national Telegraph newspaper in relation to the Whitburn & Cleadon Juniors Football Club.
Questionnaire responses were received from 2,016 people (significantly more than previous high level key issues and options and conceptual growth options consultations which have typically generated only around 100-200 responses), the vast majority from South Tyneside residents and particularly from residents of the urban fringe Green Belt villages of Whitburn, Cleadon and the Boldons.
Additionally, 1,201 respondents submitted support for a 90-page representation document from the Keep Boldon Green campaign group to object to and challenge the draft Strategic Land Review assessments of potentially suitable site options in the East Boldon areas. The Keep Cleadon Green group submitted a 27-page representation document objecting to various sites in their area. A one-page letter from the Keep Whitburn Green group objecting to three of the sites in their area was supported by signatures from 256 residents, while some 841 leaflets were also received via publicity by Whitburn & Cleadon Juniors Football Club objecting to the possibility of any development on the Cleadon Lane playing fields in Whitburn.
Written representations (letters and e-mails) were also received from 51 respondents, including neighbouring local authorities, Government agencies, developers, landowners and agents, local businesses and residents. A few residents from the Cleadon and East Boldon areas also submitted letters of objection via their local Jarrow constituency MP or the council’s Chief Executive, while a dozen responses were received from local councillors (questionnaires, letters and e-mails) in addition to various e-mail and telephone enquiries throughout the consultation period. 3
This report presents the summarised results of the feedback received from the questionnaires and other responses under Part 1 Homes, Jobs, Environment... and Part 2 Where Will Development Go? Summary schedules of all the site-by-site comments received are recorded separately in the seven SLR Character Area annex documents that site alongside this report. Supplementary and equality data from the questionnaire respondents are analysed at Appendix A.
4 Next Steps
While it has been pleasing to see that so many people have engaged with this extended consultation, given the high volume of responses received and the consequent further work required before finalising the Strategic Land Review, the next stages of preparation towards publishing the draft Local Plan will inevitably take somewhat longer than originally anticipated.
Following collation and further analysis of all the responses, the Council’s Forward Planning team are reviewing all of the Strategic Land Review site assessments, together with the additional/amended sites put forward for consideration. This process is also enabling analysis from the more recent Open Space and Playing Pitch Strategy studies and Habitats Regulations Assessment coastal bird and visitor surveys to be reflected in the finalised site assessments. The final version of the Strategic Land Review is then expected to be published in early 2017.
The next stage takes a step on from the site-by-site assessments in the Strategic Land Review to then assess the likely cumulative impacts of alternative options for possible development sites in combination, particularly in relation to their cumulative impacts on the Green Belt, the modelling of their combined traffic generation impacts and their likely implications for any expanded or new schools and other community infrastructure in some areas. Alongside this, we are continuing to keep our analysis of South Tyneside’s objectively-assessed housing and employment land needs under review.
Together, this comprehensive preparatory work will inform recommendations and decisions next year on the appropriate scale of growth and which site options should be considered most preferable for taking forward as proposed development site allocations for inclusion in the new Local Plan. The draft Local Plan will then be published for formal public consultation later in 2017, ahead of being submitted to the Secretary of State and Planning Inspectorate for an independent examination (a form of public inquiry) in 2018.
5 Summary of the General Approach to Preparing the Local Plan and the Strategic Land Review The new South Tyneside Local Plan will replace South Tyneside’s existing Local Development Framework, which was prepared and adopted between 2004-2012. The Government requires all local authorities to regularly review and update their statutory development plans every 5-10 years, planning ahead to meet the area’s needs for a plan period of at least the next 15 years from the point of adoption. The independent Local Plans Expert Group recently recommended that all local authorities with plans prepared and adopted after the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 but prior to the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (March 2012) to have at least published and submitted a draft local plan by March 2018 (a year later than the end of March 2017 target date set by the Government for those authorities without any post-2004 development plan). The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) requires local plans to be positive and aspirational but realistic and deliverable. It establishes a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ which requires all local authorities to plan positively and proactively to meet the objectively-assessed needs for future development and infrastructure in their area (including the full market and affordable housing needs), unless the adverse impacts and harm from doing do would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, or where specific national policies in the NPPF (primarily relating to environmental constraints) indicate that development should be restricted (such as international/European/national wildlife habitat designations, Green Belt, designated heritage assets, and locations at risk of flooding or coastal erosion). The starting point for identifying the borough’s objectively-assessed needs is the official Census-based population and household projections published every two years by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG). These forecast likely future population change based upon detailed analysis of natural change (from birth and death rates) and migration (internal within the UK and internationally), changing household size (average number of people living together as a household) as well as the proportions of people expected to not be living in households (ie. living in communal or institutional accommodation such as student accommodation, houses in multiple accommodation, residential care homes, etc.). Alternative objectively-assessed growth scenarios may be developed in Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMA) and other locally-informed demographic and housing needs analysis, economic growth and retail studies, supported by consideration of local trends in housebuilding and employment land take-up rates, and the proportion of vacant properties. Local authorities have a Duty to Co-operate with each other and key statutory bodies in the preparation of development plans, engaging actively, constructively and on an ongoing basis. The Duty requires that in circumstances where an authority may be unable to meet its identified development needs in full it should negotiate with its neighbouring authorities to seek their help to provide for any unmet needs. However, before deciding to ask our neighbouring authorities if they can provide for some of our future development needs, we first need to fully assess the potential scope for South Tyneside to reasonably and sustainably accommodate our own needs ourselves. Our Strategic Land Review expands upon previous Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) studies to assess the potential suitability, sustainability and indicative capacity of land to accommodate development. The site-by-site analysis will then be supplemented by appraisal of the potential cumulative impacts of possible alternative spatial combinations of sites on the Green Belt and infrastructure to determine the sustainable scope for growth in South Tyneside, and thus demonstrate to what extent it may be reasonable for the borough to plan to accommodate its objectively-assessed future development needs. Green Belts are a means for local planning authorities to manage the growth of major urban conurbations in a sustainable controlled way, so as to prevent incremental unplanned urban sprawl into the open countryside and the joining up of individual settlements. Consistent with the NPPF, the Tyne & Wear Green Belt has five core purposes in relation to South Tyneside: to check the unrestricted sprawl of the built-up area of South Tyneside; to safeguard the borough’s countryside from further encroachment; to prevent the merging of South Tyneside with Sunderland, Washington or Gateshead; to preserve the special and separate characters of Boldon Colliery, West Boldon, East Boldon, Cleadon and Whitburn; to assist in the regeneration of the urban area, by encouraging the recycling of land, particularly along the riverside. The NPPF advises that the intention is for Green Belt boundaries to have permanence enduring beyond the plan period in protecting the long-term openness of such areas, but they can be reviewed and altered in exceptional circumstances through the preparation and review of local plans, taking account of the need to promote sustainable patterns of development. In doing so, plans can also identify ‘safeguarded land’ that is also released from the Green Belt to meet longer-term development needs beyond the plan period but not allocated or brought forward for development until a future local plan review. Otherwise, within designated Green Belt areas, development proposals should only be approved in very special circumstances and generally regarded as inappropriate and harmful, subject to certain exceptions such as limited infilling of villages and limited affordable housing to meet local community needs, and the limited infilling or redevelopment of previously-developed ‘brownfield’ sites where they would not have a greater impact than the existing development on the openness of the Green Belt and its purposes.
6 Summary of Consultation Key Findings
Further to our previous consultations on key issues and options and strategic growth options (see summary boxes below), this consultation showed… While the consultation sought to actively engage people from all across the borough, the vast majority of questionnaire responses were received from residents of the Whitburn/Cleadon and East Boldon areas (over 1,000 respondents), this largely a reaction to the Strategic Land Review’s draft assessments review of Green Belt land around the borough’s urban fringe villages. Relatively few responses were received from residents and businesses from the Boldon Colliery, inner South Shields and Hebburn parts of the borough.
Some 90% of questionnaire respondents wanted to see low or no development growth in the borough and the areas where they live, favouring protection of the environment and the Green Belt around the borough’s urban fringe and villages over providing for more homes and jobs. This represented a significant change of stance from previous consultations, no doubt reflecting a degree of realisation of what the identified needs for housing and employment growth might mean in terms of potential development site options. Only 6% now supported a moderate growth option and 4% a high growth option (these being broadly akin to meeting the borough’s alternative objectively-assessed needs growth scenarios). While it is recognised that 1,201 local residents stated support for the representation document received from the Keep Boldon Green campaign group and thus may not have raised further issues in responding individually to the questionnaire, many local residents across the borough predominantly just wanted to respond to object to the draft Strategic Land Review site assessments that there might be some potential for development on land near where they live, typically seeing it as a cumulative proposal for development sites rather than an individual draft site-by-site assessment. Relatively few respondents provided further information, evidence and justification to inform the refinement of the site assessments.
Comments were received in relation to 224 (76%) of the 295 Strategic Land Review sites assessed across the borough. The Strategic Land Review sites that received the most representations (predominantly objections) to the principle of any possible development are listed below (sorted by SLR character areas) – with by far the most contentious sites being the West Hall Farm and Oakleigh Gardens playing fields sites in Cleadon (receiving 804 and 694 comments respectively), albeit again it may be that the comprehensive group response from the Keep Boldon Green campaign group (backed by 1,201 people) may have reduced the extent of some individual objections to the more contentious sites in that area (264 and 249 comments received in relation to the sites south of the Boldons). o Boldons & Cleadon . Cleadon – BC44 Land at West Hall Farm, Moor Lane/Sunderland Road, Cleadon BC57 Playing fields at Oakleigh Gardens, Cleadon BC46 Land at Cleadon North Farm, Shields Road, Cleadon BC47 Cleadon North Farm farmstead (north), Shields Road, Cleadon BC59 Land to the west of Sunniside Lane, Cleadon . Boldons – BC27 Land to south of South Lane, East Boldon BC28 Land south of Boldon, East/West Boldon BC25 Land at North Farm, Boker Lane, West Boldon BC36 Land at Station Approach, East Boldon BC33 Land at Low House Farm, Sunderland Road/St. John’s Terrace, East Boldon BC34 Land adjacent to metro line, Glencourse/Natley Avenue, East Boldon BC30 Former MoD bunkers and medical stores, Green Lane, East Boldon BC20 Land west of Boldon Cemetery, Hylton Lane, West Boldon BC38 Land to north and west of Cleadon Lane Industrial Estate, Cleadon Lane, East Boldon BC18 Land to north of Town End Farm, Boston Crescent/Boston Street, Sunderland o Whitburn WH9 Land to north of Shearwater and East of Mill Lane, Whitburn WH20 Playing fields adj. Whitburn Community Association, Cleadon Lane, Whitburn WH11 Land west of Mill Lane, Whitburn
7 WH13 Land at Marsden Avenue, Whitburn WH19 Former Charlie Hurley Centre, Cleadon Lane, Whitburn WH8 Land at Whitburn Lodge, Mill Lane, Cleadon WH17 Land at Wellands Farm, Whitburn o Fellgate & Hedworth FG6 Playing fields south of Hedworthfield Community Association, Cornhill, Fellgate FG7 Land to the east of Lakeside Inn, Durham Drive, Fellgate FG3 Land to north and east of Holland Park Drive, Jarrow Support for potential development was also particularly expressed in relation to sites BC37/BC38 (Cleadon Lane industrial estate, East Boldon), BC18 (land north of Town End Farm, Sunderland) and WH19 (former Charlie Hurley SAFC sports ground, Whitburn), as well as several suggestions from residents of Cleadon and the Boldons that sites OSS47/OSS48 (Temple Park playing fields and memorial park, both assessed as unsuitable for development) should be assessed as more favourable to build on than land around their villages. Key issues raised for review and refinement of the site assessments were principally in relation to the Green Belt, Biodiversity, Green Infrastructure and Flooding sections of the site assessments: o the relative impacts on the five core purposes of the Green Belt; o the biodiversity benefits of land not formally designated for wildlife habitat protection; o green infrastructure, open spaces and the protection of playing fields in certain areas where there is limited alternative local publicly-accessible provision; o the considered likelihood of development causing or exacerbating the risk of flooding (regardless of any integral SuDS attenuation), together with local knowledge of further surface water flooding on parts of land not indicated by the official Environment Agency maps, with recommendations to further reduce the potential net developable site areas of affected sites and thus their indicative development capacity; o the considered lack of capacity of local road infrastructure to provide adequate access to certain development sites, and the potential impacts on traffic in the local area as a result.
Key issues raised in relation to the cumulative impacts of any combinations of potential development sites in certain areas (for consideration in selecting the combination of sites beyond the site-by-site SLR) were: o the real or perceived capacity of local schools, services and community facilities (eg. doctors, dentists) to support development; o the real or perceived capacity of the local road infrastructure to cater for any growth in traffic levels without causing or exacerbating traffic congestion, particularly on the main roads and at the three level crossings in the Boldons area; o the potential impacts on the character of the urban fringe villages from the scale of development that might be planned.
Many local residents urged on principle to maximise the development of previously-developed ‘brownfield’ sites within the current urban area (town centres, riverside areas and industrial estates) before any development of previously-undeveloped ‘greenfield’ sites or the release of Green Belt land.
Several suggestions were put forward (mainly by developers and landowners/agents) recommending amendments to some of the Strategic Land Review site boundaries (predominantly in Green Belt areas assessed to be unsuitable for potential development), as well as a few additional new sites being submitted for consideration. Several respondents questioned the borough’s objectively-assessed needs population, housing and economic growth projections evidence set out in the draft topic papers published for information alongside the Strategic Land Review consultation, considering the official national and locally-informed projections to be far too high and over-optimistic. [It is noted that during the consultation period the Office of National Statistics (ONS) published updated local authority population projections in May 2016, followed by corresponding updated household projections being published in July 2016 by the Government’s Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG) – these are being analysed and will inform future updates of the topic papers and the scale of development to be planned for.] 8 Summary of the main growth options-related findings from our previous key issues and options and strategic growth options consultations (which took place in early 2013 and summer 2015 respectively), but which each drew less than 200 responses:
Local Plan Growth Options Consultation 2015 (179 responses) Summary of the feedback from public consultation on alternative strategic growth options during summer 2015: broad level of support for growth towards meeting the housing and employment needs of the borough’s future population (two thirds of respondents), but with a quarter of respondents favouring a lower level of growth primarily for environmental impact reasons, with a few people considering there to be no need to provide for any more homes and jobs. those who favoured a moderate level of growth (to meet future population and employment needs while accepting some need to develop on some green spaces and Green Belt land in order to do so), still considered the need to protect the environment and Green Belt to be a highly important factor. several local residents strongly against any development in the Green Belt on principle, while also wanting to ensure all urban ‘brownfield’ sites are developed first. protecting the environment and Green Belt was the most influential consideration in people’s reasons for selecting their preferred scale of growth, followed (in order of relative importance) by providing for more job opportunities, providing more homes, and then supporting investment in improving local services and infrastructure. those who favoured a high level of growth prioritised the needs for jobs and homes as their primary reasons, together with investing in local services and infrastructure. while the majority of respondents living in the Hebburn, Jarrow and South Shields areas of the borough favoured a moderate level of growth (two thirds, with about a quarter favouring a lower level of growth), those living in the urban fringe villages favoured a lower-to-moderate level of growth in order to protect the environment and Green Belt surrounding their villages. majority of respondents from outside South Tyneside (notably including several housing developers and agents representing local landowners) favoured a moderate-to-high level of growth, to ensure a sufficient choice of sites are made available for development across the borough to meet future housing and employment needs. those aged under 45 favoured a moderate-to-high level of growth to ensure sufficient homes and jobs for future generations (two thirds favouring moderate growth and nearly a quarter favouring a higher level of growth), while those aged over 45 favoured a more moderate-to-low level of growth in prioritising protecting the environment and Green Belt (just over half favouring moderate growth with over a third favouring a lower level of growth).
Local Plan Key Issues & Options Consultation 2013 (112 responses) Summary of the growth options-related feedback from public consultation on initial key issues and options during early 2013: majority of respondents favoured a medium-to-high growth approach and meeting most of our projected housing and economic growth requirements, rather than a low growth option. strong support for providing more employment opportunities. important to build more affordable housing (both for private home ownership and social-renting). low support for increasing housing densities to fit more homes onto development sites. very strong support for focusing development on previously-developed ‘brownfield’ sites wherever possible before building on previously-developed ‘greenfield’ sites (including those within the Green Belt). low support for allowing the development of some previously-undeveloped ‘greenfield’ sites in the short-term until the redevelopment of previously-developed ‘brownfield’ sites becomes more economically viable. low support for any potential for development in the Green Belt (particularly for any separate new settlements). low support that sufficiently providing for the borough’s future housing and employment land requirements should outweigh any adverse impacts of developing in the Green Belt. strong support for providing sufficient recreational open space to meet future needs, while diversifying and making the best use of existing open spaces and allowing some development on poor quality ‘greenfield’ sites surplus to recreational needs. important to minimise building on land in known flood risk areas.
9 Part 1: Homes, Jobs, Environment…
Question 1: Which of the three growth options do you think we should plan for over the next 20 years? (1,331 answered, with 910 selecting one of the three options)
C - High Growth None of B - Moderate 58, 4% options Growth 83, 6% 421, 17% None of options No 421, 32% response 1,106, 45%
A - Low Growth 769, 32% A - Low Growth 769, 58% C, 58 2% B, 83 3%
Growth Options Consultation Result (Summer 2015)
No response C 2, 1% 11, 7% A 41, 25%
B 112, 67%
10 Of those who did select one of the three alternative growth options for Question 1, 85% chose Option A (Low Growth), with 9% opting for Option B (Moderate Growth) and 6% for Option C (High Growth) – representing a significant change of preferences from the previous Summer 2015 growth options consultation and clearly reflecting local residents’ views on the possible consequential development land requirements that might be necessary to meet the alternative growth options in light of the draft Strategic Land Review. However, over 400 respondents stated that they did not support any of the three growth options, preferring to instead see no housing development growth in their area, and hence this is illustrated in the graphs above – this included 386 responses initiated by the Keep Cleadon Green campaign group where they had issued their own copies of the questionnaire to local residents in the Cleadon area pre-stating “None of these” and also pre-ticking the “We don’t need more homes” reason under Question 2. Together, nearly 90% of respondents wished to see no or low development growth in South Tyneside.
Question 2: The Main Reasons for Why People Chose their Preferred Option in Question 1… (1,526 answered – more than one reason possible)
1000
900 885 790 800
700
600
500
400 376
300
268 200 174
147 100 134 60
0 We need more We need more To protect the To support local We don't need We don't need Other No response homes jobs environment and services and more homes more jobs Green Belt infrastructure
Growth Options Consultation Result (Summer 2015) 60 56 50 44 40 38 30 30 20
10 6 3 0 We need more We need more jobs To protect the To support local We don't need Other homes environment and services and more homes or jobs Green Belt infrastructure
The increased scale of responses to this consultation (compared to last summer) preferring to see no or low growth under Question 1 saw people’s relative support for new housing development decline significantly. Protecting the environment and Green Belt nevertheless continued to be the main reason for respondents’ growth option choices, but now coupled with strong views that there is no need for more housing in the Cleadon, Boldons and Whitburn villages and related concerns over the capacity of local services and infrastructure to be able to cater for the possible scale of growth that might be necessary to meet the borough’s projected future development needs.
11 Part 2: Where Will Development Go?
The key points of responses made in relation to sites within the draft Strategic Land Review site assessments are set out in the seven separate SLR Character Area annex documents that sit alongside this summary report: Inner South Shields Character Area Outer South Shields Character Area Jarrow Character Area Hebburn Character Area Fellgate & Hedworth Character Area Boldons & Cleadon Character Area Whitburn Character Area
The summaries in those SLR Character Area documents are broken down according to the views of local residents, consultants/developers/landowners, statutory consultees, political views and group responses. The summaries also indicate for reference purposes how each site was rated overall in the draft Strategic Land Review site assessment, whether they are within the Green Belt, whether they are already allocated for (housing or employment) development in the current adopted development plan, and in some cases whether they may have already gained planning permission (or have a live planning application) since the time of the site originally being assessed for inclusion in the SLR.
Overall, comments were received in relation to 224 (76%) of the 295 Strategic Land Review sites assessed across the borough: SLR Character Area Total Assessed Sites Sites Receiving Comments % Receiving Comment Inner South Shields 24 22 91.7 Outer South Shields 66 50 75.8 Jarrow 46 24 52.2 Hebburn 42 25 59.5 Fellgate and Hedworth 27 21 77.8 Boldon and Cleadon 60 54 90.0 Whitburn 30 29 96.7 TOTAL 295 225 76.3
The sites that received the most comments from residents (>15 comments, including positive comments in support of potential development of some sites) were:
Site Site Name Total No. % of Ref. Resident Positive Comments Comments Comments Positive BC44 Land at West Hall Farm, Moor Lane / Sunderland Road, Cleadon 804 1 0.1 BC57 Playing Fields at Oakleigh Gardens, Cleadon 694 1 0.1 BC46 Land at Cleadon North Farm, Shields Road, Cleadon 367 - - BC27 Land to south of South Lane, South Lane, East Boldon 264 - - BC28 Land south of Boldon, East/West Boldon 249 - - BC47 Cleadon North Farm farmstead (north), Shields Road, Cleadon 223 1 0.4 BC37 Land at Cleadon Lane Industrial Estate, East Boldon 154 30 19.5 WH9 Land to North of Shearwater and East of Mill Lane, Shearwater / Mill Lane, Whitburn 148 3 2.0 WH20 Whitburn Community Association Playing Fields 145 2 1.4 BC25 Land at North Farm, Boker Lane, West Boldon 132 4 3.0 BC36 Land at Station Approach, East Boldon 125 1 0.8 WH11 Land west of Mill Lane, Whitburn 121 - - FG6 Playing fields south of Hedworthfield Community Association, Cornhill, Fellgate 93 - - WH13 Land at Marsden Avenue, Whitburn 79 2 2.5 BC33 Land at Low House Farm, Sunderland Road / St. John's Terrace, East Boldon 72 - -
12 BC34 Land adjacent to metro line, Glencourse/Natley Avenue, East Boldon 71 4 5.6 BC30 Former MoD bunkers and medical stores, Green Lane, East Boldon 51 4 7.8 FG7 Land to the east of the Lakeside Inn, Durham Drive, Fellgate 47 2 4.3 WH19 Former Charlie Hurley Centre 42 8 19.0 WH8 Land at Whitburn Lodge, Mill Lane, Whitburn 28 2 7.1 BC20 Land west of Boldon Cemetery, Hylton Lane, West Boldon 28 1 3.6 OSS47 Temple Memorial Park, John Reid Road, South Shields 22 22 100.0 OSS48 Temple Memorial Park, John Reid Road, South Shields 22 22 100.0 WH17 Land at Wellands Farm, Whitburn 22 2 9.1 BC59 Land to the west of Sunniside Lane, Cleadon 21 - - FG3 Land to North and East of Holland Park Drive, Jarrow 21 - - BC38 Land to North and West of Cleadon Lane Industrial Estate, Cleadon Lane, East Boldon 18 8 44.4 BC18 Land to North of Town End Farm, Boston Crescent / Boston Street, Sunderland 17 10 58.8
In addition to developers and landowners promoting cases for their own sites to be considered suitable for development (including sites assessed to be unsuitable or potentially suitable in the draft SLR), is noted that several of the comments of support for the development of some sites were received from the campaign groups or individuals who in turn were objecting to the potential for development on land around where they live elsewhere in the borough. In particular, the comments received in relation to the Temple Park sites in South Shields (both assessed to be unsuitable for development in the draft SLR due principally to the protected biodiversity designations and historic landfill constraints and its role as a strategic playing fields and leisure hub) were received from residents of the Boldons and Cleadon areas who considered that public open space to be more appropriate to build on than Green Belt land around their villages.
Additional and Amended Sites Submitted for Consideration
Many of the site/location suggestions have already been assessed in the Strategic Land Review (albeit perhaps with slightly different site boundaries) and/or previous Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) studies, with several already being allocated development sites in the current Local Development Framework.
A full schedule of the locations and sites (new and amended boundaries) submitted for further consideration in the final Strategic Land Review are set out in the annex document that sits alongside this summary report.
13 Appendix A: Supplementary and Equality Questions
Typology of Questionnaire Respondents (1,443 answered – more than one option possible)
1500 1,404 1400
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200 168
100 32 26 26 5 7 0 Local Resident Local Business Local Landowner Developer/Agent Other Organisation Local Councillor Other
Location of Residence of Questionnaire Respondents (by Postcode sector) (1,435 answered)
1100 1,003 1000
900
800
700
600 564
500
400
300
200 170 104 100 75 19 24 12 3 11 7 7 0
14 Equality information (optional and confidential, questionnaire respondents for monitoring purposes only)
Sex Disability or Long-term Illness (1,179 answered / 837 not stated) (878 answered, 1,138 not stated))
Not stated 1% Yes 7%
Male 44%
Female 55%
No 93%
Age Ethnicity (1,285 answered / 731 not stated) (1,235 answered / 775 not stated)
Under 17 Asian / Asian Mixed Other 1% British 1% 0% 18-24 2% 3% Black / Black 75+ over British 25-34 10% 0% 9% Arabic / Middle 65-74 Eastern 18% 35-44 0% 20% Chinese 0%
55-64 20% 45-54 19% White 97%
15
To find out more about the Local Plan, please contact:
Forward Planning Team Development Services South Tyneside Council Town Hall and Civic Offices, Westoe Road South Shields, Tyne & Wear NE33 2RL
Telephone: (0191) 424 7688 E-mail: [email protected] Visit: www.southtyneside.gov.uk/localplan
If you know someone who would like this information in a different format contact the communications team on (0191) 424 7385