'Health massively put at risk' - Plans for 1,200 new South Tyneside homes come under fire

Campaigners have set up a working group and petition to raise concerns over green space in South Tyneside being earmarked for up to 1,200 new homes.

A “Saving the Fellgate Green Belt” campaign has been set up by concerned residents who are against proposals for the area which form part of South Tyneside’s draft Local Plan.

The final document will provide a framework for where new homes, businesses and leisure facilities will be built up until 2040, and a draft plan has been through two rounds of public consultation to date.

The blueprint identifies land south of Fellgate as a Sustainable Growth Area, which is allocated for up to 1,200 new homes and supporting community infrastructure, but this has been met with strong objections from residents.

As spokesperson for the campaign group, Dave Green, 60, who lives in Fellgate, said it will try to challenge the proposed development in the area and “retain the Fellgate green belt status”.

He said: “It’s felt that the mental health and wellbeing and safety of the people on the estate is going to be massively put at risk.

“If the development is given the go-ahead it will have a serious detrimental impact on the current Fellgate and Hedworth community for many, many years to come.”

He added concerns around the proposed development include the potential for flooding, loss of wildlife habitats and farmland, and “additional traffic chaos from the proposed access points onto the A194 Mill Lane roundabout”.

Campaigners say roads which would be adversely impacted include Durham Drive and the Fellgate Avenue/Hedworth Lane junction, which is already “severely congested daily”, while they note there are three schools nearby to the proposed development site.

Mr Green, relief support worker and father-of-two, added: “It already clogs up and gets totally congested, it then becomes a rat run.

“Also if you put hundreds of thousands of tonnes of concrete in these fields, and these fields flood again, it would flood the estate, that’s just our concern.

“Another point was the fact that it’s green belt, they’ve overlooked accessible brownfield sites which could have still done the same job.”

He added they are getting a “bigger working group together” and are seeking to “put pressure on the council” to change the plans for the area.

Several events have been held by campaigners to date to discuss concerns over the proposed development, including a meeting at the end of February and a group walk at the start of March. 

An online petition set up seeking to fight the development currently has more than 1,850 signatures and can be found at Petition · Save the Greenbelt – South Fellgate Housing Development · Change.org.

Concerns have also been raised by campaigners that they faced issues accessing documents on the website during the consultation at the Regulation 19 stage of the Local Plan.

Council chiefs said they were aware there was a broken link to one evidence-based document at one stage, however, this was addressed once reported and it was available in two other unaffected places on the website throughout the consultation.

Councillor Margaret Meling, lead member for economic growth and transport, said: “Residents and businesses were invited to give their views on the draft Local Plan during two public consultation periods in summer 2022 and early 2024. 

“Feedback has been used to shape and refine the publication draft Local Plan, which will be submitted to the Secretary of State for a public examination before an independent planning inspector later this year.

“The publication draft Local Plan identifies land south of Fellgate as a Sustainable Growth Area, which is allocated for up to 1,200 new homes and supporting community infrastructure. 

“The council intends to produce a masterplan to ensure significant infrastructure including education, transport, open space, playing pitches will be in place to support it. 

“The council consulted on a scoping report for the Fellgate Sustainable Growth Area supplementary planning document alongside the Local Plan consultation. 

“This gave residents an opportunity to express their views and raise considerations which will help inform the content of the Fellgate Sustainable Growth Area supplementary planning document.

“Local authorities have a statutory duty to prepare a Local Plan for their area.  

“Our current local development framework is significantly out-of-date and therefore it is vital that we have an up-to-date Local Plan so that we can maintain control over development in the borough and are able to plan positively to meet our current and future needs.”