NEW housing schemes are to go ahead on the sites of two former council-run residential care homes in South Tyneside.
Gerald Street House in Gerald Street, South Shields, and Beech House in Beech Street, Jarrow, are to be demolished to make way for a total of 61 new properties.
South Tyneside Council’s planning committee gave both developments the green light when they met yesterday – decisions which end a long-running saga.
Both homes closed late in 2010 despite high-profile campaigns to save them.
In the end, the council decided both were surplus to requirement and too much money was required to restore them.
The applicant for both housing schemes is Sunderland-based Gleeson Developments and the homes will comprise of a mixture of two, three and four-bedroom semi-detached and detached properties.
The Beech Street scheme went ahead unopposed.
But Labour representatives for Whiteleas, Coun Ernest Gibson and Bill Brady, raised the concerns over access to the Gerald Street housing site.
Coun Gibson suggested access to the development should be from Percy Scott Street, rather than Gerald Street.
He said: “We welcome Gleeson coming to Whiteleas but residents have concerns over proposed access to the site with the entrance being very narrow and close to a sheltered accommodation.”
Despite the request, members agreed the original access location, with Coun Ahmed Khan, of the Independent Alliance, describing the housing application as a ‘useful utilisation of the site’.
Twenty-six properties are to be built in Gerald Street, with 35 in Beech Street.
Twitter: @shieldsgazpaul
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