See the first images of what the revamped former Hawthorn Leslie shipyard could look like after housing plans approved for site which produced famous WW2 ship HMS Kelly

Earlier this week, South Tyneside Council’s Planning Committee voted to approve a planning application for the former Hawthorn Leslie shipbuilding site, in Hebburn.

This includes 446 new homes, with a mix of 407 apartments and 39 houses, as well as a riverside bar and restaurant, convenience store, children’s play area and community centre.

The development is set to be named Kelly’s Yard, in honour of Lord Louis Mountbatten’s famous World War Two K-Class destroyer, which was later immortalised in the classic British film In Which We Serve.

Once completed, the former shipyard site, which was closed in the 1980s, will be transformed into a new residential quarter with several towering apartment blocks and new houses.

This includes 12 studio apartments, 130 one-bedroom apartments and 265 two-bedroom apartments, as well as five three-bed houses, seven four-bed houses and 27 five-bed houses.

After winning support at a council planning meeting on Monday (September 5), developers have released images of how the new riverside development will look.

Brains behind the scheme have stressed the site will meet demand for smaller-scale homes, retain ecological features, including mud flats and salt marshes, and would be designed to reduce impact on neighbours.

The development is also expected to provide around £2 million in developer cash, through a section 106 legal agreement with the council, which will be used for primary school education, transport and highways and other improvements in the area.

In addition, developers say the scheme would provide a “low entry point” for new homes of under £100,000, while also creating new jobs through contractors, suppliers, labour and new apprenticeships.

The applicant behind the scheme has previously been named as Hebburn Riverside Developments Ltd.

Final planning permission is subject to the Section 106 agreement being completed and other matters, including some highways works being finalised with National Highways.

A statement on behalf of developers added: “We look forward, upon issue of a clean [planning] consent, to demolishing dangerous and ugly buildings, and commencing phase one of a development of which we and the local community will be very proud.”