South Tyneside Council leaders agree next steps for 'local plan' for the borough

South Tyneside Council’s cabinet of senior councillors has endorsed the latest version of the local plan ahead of a crunch full council meeting next week.

The local plan provides a framework for where new homes, businesses, shops and leisure amenities will be built up until 2040, and aims to ensure that the right infrastructure, such as roads, health facilities and schools, is in place to support growth.

South Tyneside Council has been developing its local plan for years and has seen several setbacks and amendments to the development blueprint, including the removal of potential housing sites following public consultation.

Recent changes to the development plan saw the percentage of South Tyneside’s Green Belt proposed for development drop from seven per cent to five per cent, as well as a decrease in housing numbers.

The latest draft includes a huge proposed housing development on Green Belt land in the Fellgate area of up to 1,200 homes, which has been opposed by campaigners, with thousands signing a petition which was recently submitted to the local authority.

As well as housing, the local plan includes policies looking at health and economic growth, climate change and transport, along with a focus on ‘design standards’ for new developments and affordable housing.

Borough bosses have stressed that failing to have an up-to-date local plan creates a risk of ‘speculative development’ and that failing to meet legal deadlines could also see central government step in and take control of the local plan process.

Following endorsement by the council’s ruling Labour cabinet on Tuesday, August 27, the local plan will go to full council on Thursday, September 5.

This meeting will see councillors vote on whether to move the local plan to the final stage, by submitting the document to the Secretary of State for an independent examination in public.

The examination in public involves a planning inspector assessing the plan over several public hearings, with interested parties able to make representations at the formal meetings.

Once the public hearings conclude, the planning inspector will publish a decision on whether the local plan can be formally adopted and the inspector also has the power to make modifications and remove specific housing sites.

At this week’s cabinet meeting, senior Labour councillors spoke out about the benefits of the local plan and the implications if the plan is stalled before this crucial final stage.

Councillor Margaret Meling, cabinet member for economic growth and transport, said the latest local plan follows two statutory consultations and that it was “deliverable”.

The cabinet member added the plan was “considered to be sound having been positively prepared” and would “provide a strategy which seeks to meet the area’s objectively assessed needs”.

Cllr Meling continued: “Failure to proceed with submission could lead to significant delays in the introduction of a local plan for South Tyneside.

“This would severely impact our ability to manage effectively future speculative planning applications, would make it harder to protect the sites that are valued, and make adequate delivery of appropriate infrastructure including transport, education, health, open space and affordable homes, harder.

“The government has made clear in their proposed reforms to the national planning policy framework (NPPF) that making compromises with targeted release of Green Belt for local plans will be crucial to delivering on housing pledges that the majority of us overwhelmingly voted for”.

Councillors were told that the local plan uses 5 per cent of South Tyneside’s total Green Belt land, while simultaneously delivering on local housing targets and that local housing targets of around 300 annually could potentially more than double under future national planning reforms.

Cllr Meling referenced the new government’s “growth agenda” including the “recent publication of a new draft national planning policy framework” as well as “the need [for councils] to have an up-to-date plan in place”.

“If we don’t submit on time, such is the gap between our current housing requirement and the much increased figure suggested in the draft NPPF, we would effectively have to restart the plan,” she added.

“This would expose us further to the risks around speculative development, it could significantly increase the likelihood of government intervention and the potential loss of some degree of control over plan-making in the borough.

“Housing is now more of a priority than it has ever been and South Tyneside has a role to play in ending the worst housing crisis in living memory”.

Several cabinet members spoke out at the meeting outlining the social benefits of the local plan around housing and skills, and the risks for the borough if the plan is not adopted.

Councillor Jim Foreman, cabinet member for housing and community safety, said the plan was about “leaving the right inheritance for our future families” and “protecting social and community infrastructure”.

“We need to be honest about the decisions that we make and the choices that we make,” he added

“As Cllr Meling says, if we don’t make those choices, our choices, the government would step in and make those choices for us. It’s not something that we need or want.

“When I look at the local plan I see it as a decision not for tomorrow or next week but for the future, for the future of my children, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren and even our great great grandchildren.

“There’s a real need for good housing and this local plan will produce that good housing that we need for the future generations of this borough”.

In 2022, the council received almost 1,900 responses during consultation at the Regulation 18 stage local plan and the council states feedback was taken on board and reflected where possible.

Earlier this year, public consultation on Regulation 19, which determines if the plan is ‘sound’ and prepared legally, attracted a further 384 representations, including from members of the public, landowners and developers, councillors and neighbourhood forums.

In addition, consultation was also carried out on the Fellgate Sustainable Growth Area Supplementary Planning Document Scoping Report, which would inform a future masterplan for the largest housing site in the local plan.

This document, which sets out proposals for houses and local infrastructure, attracted 241 responses, including a petition in objection.

South Tyneside Council states the representations were considered carefully, and that a number of minor modifications have been proposed to the local plan prior to submission to the Secretary of State.

The council’s published local development scheme sets out that the local plan is to be submitted in summer 2024.

Council bosses have previously said they are hoping for the examination in public to happen in early-2025, and for the plan to be formally adopted later the same year.

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Councillor Ernest Gibson, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and climate change, added it was important that the council supports the local plan.

“If we fail to pass this plan, change by national policy will only lead to next time the plan coming to council with a plan for more development and more land,” he added.

“The government will come in and make a decision for us and we will not be able to make that decision.

“This decision is about our future and development for our future”.

South Tyneside Council’s local plan will be discussed by full council on Thursday, September 5, at South Shields Town Hall.

The meeting will be broadcast live from 6pm on the council’s YouTube channel and will be open to the public.

Information on the local plan can be found via South Tyneside Council’s website.