South Shields: eyesore Lawe Road hotel site held together by scaffolding could be reborn as homes

South Tyneside Council’s Planning Committee will discuss and vote on an application for a site on the corner of Lawe Road and Ocean Road.

Plans for a 43-room hotel at the site of the former Park Hotel were approved back in 2017, however work stalled and was never completed.

In 2025, the partially demolished building still remained an empty shell, with its Lawe Road facade held in place by a network of scaffolding.

Concerns about the development site have previously been raised in Parliament, with South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck describing the building as an “eyesore” and calling for new powers for councils to deal with such situations.

Plans submitted to South Tyneside Council earlier this year (2025) aimed to “give a purpose back to 3 Lawe Road” by creating a “four-storey apartment block” within the site footprint.

The proposed apartment scheme included 14 one-bed apartments and one two-bed apartment and planning documents submitted to the council provided further details of the development.

This included plans to “remove the existing facade, whilst paying homage to the apartments that stood there beforehand by recreating similar window openings and the bays that tied it into the whole of Lawe Road”.

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Planning documents also described the proposed apartments as “starter dwellings” and noted that no in-curtilage parking was proposed to serve the new homes.

However, developers argued there was available parking in the wider area and noted cycle parking spaces would be proposed in a rear communal courtyard at the site.

During a council public consultation exercise on the plans, there were four objections raising a number of concerns, including the loss of the existing building facade, parking pressures from new apartments and traffic during construction.

South Tyneside Council’s planning officers, in a report published ahead of a decision-making meeting later this month, have recommended the apartment plans for approval.

Council planners, in a committee report, said the plans would “contribute towards boosting housing supply, given the council’s housing delivery shortfall” and would not give rise to an “unacceptable impact on highway safety or a severe cumulative impact on the network in terms of its car parking impacts”.

It was also noted that the “design of the building and its boundary treatments are considered to be acceptable, having regard to the scale of the building that previously occupied the site, as well as surrounding buildings and […] the previously approved hotel proposals.”

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Any planning approval would be subject to the completion of a legal agreement securing financial contributions from developers towards ecology and affordable housing matters.

The section 106 legal agreement, which is a standard part of the planning process, would secure around £6,000 towards ecology work focusing on coastal nature sites.

Although the applicant plans to provide apartments for “open market sale or rental” at Lawe Road, the legal agreement would also secure a “financial contribution of £68,250 for off-site affordable housing”.

The council committee report adds: “The site is, in principle, considered to be an acceptable location for the proposal.

“Furthermore, the proposal is considered acceptable in terms of housing mix / tenure, highways, parking, cycle parking and refuse storage, design, heritage and archaeology, residential amenity, ecology matters, flood risk/drainage and contaminated land, subject to conditions and completion of a Section 106 Agreement.

“Overall having regard to the NPPF (national planning policy framework) paragraph 11 tilted balance, it is considered that there are no policies that protect areas or assets of particular importance that provide a strong reason for refusing the proposed development, whether on heritage grounds or with regards to the coastal designated sites.

“It is not considered that there are any identified adverse impacts that would significantly and demonstrably outweigh thebenefits of the proposed development.”

A design, access, heritage and sustainability statement from developers, submitted earlier this year (2025), noted previous hotel plans for the site were “paused due to the Covid-19 pandemic and have not resumed due to changed market demand”.

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Developers said the new apartments scheme had been designed to “enhance the surrounding area and promote sustainability and [the] regeneration of the site”.

Floor plans indicate that the 15 self-contained apartments would be distributed across four floors, with three apartments on the ground floor and remaining apartments based across upper floors.

The design, access, heritage and sustainability statement added the plans would “provide the perfect waymarker to North Marine Park and the beach”, delivering a development that “follows the traditional homes along Lawe Road, whilst also having a contemporary feel by the material choices chosen.”

Councillors on South Tyneside Council’s Planning Committee will discuss the plan at a meeting on Monday, May 19, at South Shields Town Hall.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 10am and will be open to the public.

For more information on the plan, visit South Tyneside Council’s planning portal website and search application reference number: ST/0746/24/FUL