Eyesore development site in South Shields where hotel was never finished could finally get new lease of life

South Tyneside Council’s planning department has received an application for a site on the corner of Lawe Road and Ocean Road in the town.

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 January, 2025, the partially demolished building remains an empty shell, with its three-storey Lawe Road facade held in place by a network of scaffolding.

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

New plans submitted to South Tyneside Council aim to “give a purpose back to 3 Lawe Road” by creating a “four-storey apartment block” within the site footprint.

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

A design, access, heritage and sustainability statement from developers notes that previous hotel plans for the site were “paused due to the Covid-19 pandemic and have not resumed due to changed market demand”.

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

This includes 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”.

Planning documents also describe the proposed apartments as “starter dwellings” and note that no in-curtilage parking is proposed to serve the new homes.

However, developers argued there was available parking in the wider area and noted 18 cycle parking spaces would be proposed in a rear communal courtyard at the site.

Floor plans also 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 the first, second and third floors.

The design, access, heritage and sustainability statement adds: “The proposed apartments provide the perfect waymarker to North Marine Park and the beach [and the scheme] intends to deliver a development that follows the traditional homes along Lawe Road, whilst also having a contemporary feel by the material choices chosen.

“The material choice, contemporary white brick, has been carefully considered to tie in with the colour palette of Lawe Road.

“The client and the design team are fully committed to delivering a high-quality residential scheme that will provide new starter homes in an attractive location.

“Not just designing for today but also for the future aligning with the wider-scale vision set by South Tyneside Council.”

A decision on the planning application is expected to be made once a period of council consultation has concluded.

Comments can be made on the plan, via South Tyneside Council’s planning portal website, until January 29, 2025.

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