Councillors to vote again on the South Tyneside Local Plan following rejection in 2024

The South Tyneside Local Plan is set to go before the Borough Council once again at the end of February, despite it being rejected in September last year.

An ‘Extraordinary Meeting of Borough Council’ will be held on Thursday, February 27, at 10am to consider and seek approval for the formal submission of the publication draft of the South Tyneside Local Plan and its associated submission documentation.

The Local Plan provides a framework for where new homes, businesses, shops and leisure amenities will be built up in the borough up until 2040 - something that South Tyneside Council bosses have been working on for a number of years.

The local authority has seen several setbacks and amendments to the development blueprint over recent years, including the removal of potential housing sites following public consultation.

A number of concerns have previously been raised over the Local Plan, including the destruction of trees, green spaces, greenbelt land, the loss of a community centre, an increase in traffic on the roads and a lack of affordable housing.

On September 5, 2024, councillors voted by 26 votes to 23, with one abstention, to reject pushing forward with the plan.

February’s ‘Extraordinary Meeting of Borough Council’ follows a request that meets the requirement of Council Procedure Rule 3.1.5.

This requirement sates that “any five elected members of the Council can ask the Mayor to call an extraordinary meeting of the Council at any time if they have a signed requisition presented to the Mayor and if the business to be conducted is appropriate.”

Despite the Local Plan being rejected less than six months ago, “a motion in similar terms can be moved within six months of the initial decision if the notice is signed by at least 12 elected members”.

South Tyneside Council has told the Shields Gazette that the Local Plan is coming back before the Council due to the publishing of a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

The ‘Regulation 22 publication draft’ that previously came before the Borough Council was not endorsed to be submitted for ‘Examination in Public’.

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Under the new NPPF, the standard method for calculating housing need has changed and provides a local housing target for the Borough of a minimum of 623 homes a year – more than double the 309 units planned for in the current draft Local Plan.

However, due to transitional arrangements, if the Local Plan were to be submitted for examination before March 12, 2025, it will be able to progress under the old framework.

This would mean that it is not required to meet the new higher housing need figure.

As a result, the new planning framework and submission deadline are considered to amount to exceptional circumstances to bring the Local Plan back before the Borough Council.

Following the Local Plan meeting on the morning of February 27, South Tyneside Council will then meet again at 6pm that day for the already scheduled budget meeting.