Plans approved to demolish and rebuild outdated service station in Jarrow

South Tyneside Council’s planning department received an application for the Hedworth Service Station, off Leam Lane, in the Fellgate and Hedworth ward.

This included the demolition of the service station buildings and redevelopment work to provide a new “petrol filling station facility”.

According to documents, the new development would consist of a canopy/ forecourt, shop building, underground storage tanks, associated parking and landscaping.

Proposed parking for the site also included around nine marked customer parking spaces, including a disabled space and two electric vehicle charging spaces, as well as three cycle racks near the shop entrance.

The application follows a separate planning bid for the service station site, approved by South Tyneside Council in February, 2022, which included works to extend the kiosk and replace the forecourt canopy and pump islands.

New plans from SRJ Energy Limited, instead, proposed demolition and redevelopment work to provide new facilities on the site.

According to a planning statement submitted with the planning application, current facilities are “outdated” both “visually and operationally”.

The proposed redevelopment of the site, the document adds, was “essential in order to provide an enhanced facility capable of meeting the demands of a modern petrol filling station operator and its customers”.

After considering the planning application and assessing it against planning policies, South Tyneside Council’s planning department approved it on November 30, 2022.

A report prepared by council planning officers said the proposed new use, including a larger shop building, would be “appropriate given the nature of the site and history of a variety of commercial uses”.

Council planners also said the development would be acceptable in terms of design, impacts on neighbours and highway safety, subject to conditions.

One condition includes the applicant providing a demolition and construction method statement setting out details ranging from temporary traffic management to the loading and unloading of materials.

Those behind the scheme have said the development represents a “significant economic investment by the site owner [resulting] in the creation of new jobs”, as well as “improving the visual character of the area”.

The redeveloped site will also use existing vehicular access arrangements, with an existing entry and exit point from and leading onto the A194 Leam Lane.

Under planning conditions, the demolition and redevelopment plan must be brought forward within three years.

For more information on the planning application, visit South Tyneside Council’s online planning portal and search reference: ST/0309/22/FUL