Demolition of crumbling Gateshead Flyover a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity' to radically overhaul town centre

A project to finally remove the deserted A167 Gateshead Highway flyover is due to start next week, 10 months after the busy road was closed suddenly last December amid fears it could be at risk of collapsing.

Engineers will first knock down the vacant Computer House building next to the flyover before they begin demolishing the elevated highway itself early next year.

Council chiefs say that the flyover’s removal will pave the way for a major regeneration project featuring “accessible public spaces, safe walkable streets, and green areas” that could breathe much-needed life into Gateshead High Street.

But visions of such a redevelopment date back as far as 2008 and have never come to fruition.

And, while Gateshead Council has committed up to £18 million and North East mayor Kim McGuinness a further £2.5 million for the demolition works, there is no such funding in place for the regeneration at this stage and there have been repeated warnings that Government help will be required.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Tuesday, council leader Martin Gannon said that he believed the flyover’s absence would make the area around Gateshead High Street far more appealing to private sector developers.

The long-serving Labour councillor said: “The council is a catalyst. We acquire the properties and assemble the land for redevelopment. Yes, it does require Government support and the North East Combined Authority, Gateshead Council, and Newcastle City Council have just recently formed a partnership with Homes England and other partners to lever in additional resources from Government and other sources. But it is also about levering in private sector investment.

“There will be resources put in by the council, by the Government, and through other agencies. But ultimately, for the vast majority of the money to redevelop this whole area, it is about giving confidence to private sector investors to invest their money in Gateshead.”

Gateshead Council shrank the scale of its High Street South redevelopment in an effort to get it off the ground earlier this year and councilors backed a refreshed regeneration vision for the town last month.

There is particular excitement about Manchester-based Capital & Centric’s plans to transform the Old Town Hall into hundreds of homes.

Coun Gannon said: “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in terms of the transformation and redevelopment of Gateshead.”

He added: “We have already started in the Old Town Hall quarter, where a developer is in place and a planning application is going through at the present time for around 480 new homes in the town hall and the land around it. That will take place virtually immediately and will happen over the next two years.

“That acts as a catalyst for the south end of the high street and the flyover coming down massively increases the attractiveness of this entire site for redevelopment. So yes, I am very positive that redevelopment will take place.”

For more public notices near yu visit www.publicnoticesportal.co.uk