Houses approved for land one planned for pub

The plan for the site in Jarrow’s Fellgate Estate, off Lincoln Way, were given the green light by council planning bosses today, despite a raft of objections.

Members of South Tyneside Council agreed they could see no legally valid reasons why the proposals should be refused.

Objections raised in 58 separate letters covered issues including flooding fears, loss of green space, traffic and road safety and the design of the two homes the applicant, named in papers as Gavin Hall, was seeking permission to build.

Coun Audrey Huntley called the plans a ‘massive overdevelopment in an unacceptable location’.

She also claimed garages for the properties could be converted into bedrooms and raised concerns for the safety of children at the nearby Fellgate Primary School due to extra traffic.

Coun Geraldine Kilgour also spoke against the application, saying: “This application has been in the making since February 2018, but at no point has anyone involved made contact with our residents.

“Given the applicant and owner lives in our borough, I hope they would know the land is precious to our residents.”

The Fellgate Estate was built during the 1960s and 1970s, with the site originally reserved for a pub, but planning permission was never sought.

Proposing the plans be accepted, Coun Gladys Hobson told the committee: “I think as members we all know what it’s like outside schools, but traffic will not change with two extra houses on this site.”

She added: “It’s privately owned, not publicly owned, it’s not public space, although the public may be using it as such.

“The objectors may have personal reasons for not wanting this, but there’s no planning reasons to reject it.”

James Harrison

James Harrison , Local Democracy Reporting Service