Historic 150-year-old Harton landmark at risk due to planning fears - petition launched
A petition has been launched to try and save a 150-year-old South Shields landmark amid planning fears.
A plan to demolish a near 150-year-old historic South Tyneside landmark to make way for a petrol station and shop extension has been slammed - and a protest petition started.
Over 700 people have signed up online to object to a proposal to tear down Harton Hall Cottages, built in 1878 in Moor Lane, at Harton village.
Plans to modernise petrol station and store - risks local history
Houghton-le-Spring-based forecourt operator SRJ Energy Limited wants to modernise the site by upgrading its Esso petrol station and convenience store.
To do so, it has applied for planning permission to knock down the two-story cottages, which it uses for storage and bought about five years ago.
An adjoining disused car salesroom will also be demolished and incorporated into the extension project.
In response, village shop owner Barbara Compton, 67, has launched an online petition which she hopes could help sway opinion and see the scheme scrapped.
She said: “The service station as it stands today is not at all suitable for its location, it's in the wrong place, so the last thing that is needed is this change.
“Moor Lane already gets clogged by vehicles using the garage and adding a new shop will only make matters worse – the roads will be a lot busier and congested.
“There are plenty of shops at Harton already, including a separate convenience store, and the Nook is close – we really don’t need another.
“I don’t know why the petrol station people can’t modernise the cottages and the showroom and utilise them by bringing them back into use.
“The gutters need doing and no doubt some other repairs are needed, but the Victorians knew how to build, and the cottages look otherwise in good condition.
“Some people do say the building is an eyesore, but plenty of people are mortified about this plan, almost everyone I’ve spoken to is against it.
“I’ve only had my petition running for just over a fortnight and already hundreds of people have signed it.
“The cottages are a significant and important part of Harton’s history and should be saved. I hope people back my petition.”
Planning documents show the cottages were part of Harton Hall, built by Joseph Mason Moore, a wealthy former town mayor, which still stands on one corner of the village’s traffic lights crossroads.
Demolition seen as only ‘moderate significance’
A heritage assessment submitted on behalf of SRJ Energy Limited has recorded the demolition as being of only ‘moderate’ significance and loss as causing ‘less than substantial harm’.
It states ‘the demolition of the cottages may be supportable in heritage terms’ and that a detailed historic recording would be needed.
This would be to mitigate ‘to a certain extent the harm which would evidently result from the loss of this non-designated heritage asset’.
And ‘consideration should also be given as to whether any of the fabric from the existing cottages could be re-used and incorporated into the new shop premises’.
SRJ Energy Limited did not respond to a request for comment and South Tyneside Council said no date had been fixed for the firm’s planning application to be heard.