'Tragedy' - Battle lines drawn over housing plans for much-loved South Tyneside spot
The Fellgate Ponds site has been put up for sale - and campaigners against plans to develop it have drawn battle lines.
Campaigners have called for a South Tyneside wildlife retreat at risk of being sold for housing to be saved – describing its possible loss as “tragic”.
.png?trim=0,0,0,0&crop=&width=640&quality=65)
They say they hope a buyer can be found who will retain Fellgate Ponds in its current form as a home for fish and a haven for swans.
Trevor Crawford, 73, who has owned the near five-acre plot beside the Lakeside pub at Fellgate, Jarrow, since 1987, has put it on the market for £125,000.
He has confirmed he hopes the site will be turned over to housing, a move he admits would earn him an additional 50 percent of any increase in the land’s value.
Why the site is being sold?
Mr Crawford, who is retired and lives in Washington, has said his intention was always to sell for development but that at no time in the past four decades were sale conditions right.
The land sits a stone’s throw from 200 hectares of green belt farmland that could also be turned over to housebuilding, a plan currently subject to a government-led public inquiry.
Fellgate Ponds users and local estate residents have criticised Mr Crawford's plans, saying they instead hope the land can stay as it is.
Dave Green, 62, spokesman for Save the Fellgate Green Belt Working Group, which is fighting the proposed green belt development, said he wanted an alternative outcome.
He said: “They've been part of the Fellgate landscape for decades and are a haven for many forms of wildlife.
“It's essential for the Local area that they remain as ponds, and it would be a tragedy if they were lost to housing.”
Fellgate battle lines drawn over plans
Local campaigner Dianne Hunter, 60, who has previously called for Fellgate Ponds to be better managed, following vandalism and the death and injury of swans, backed him.
She added: “We don’t want it to be put up for housing. Many of us hope it will continue to be a place for wildlife that we can visit.
“I very much want it left as it is and it would be such a shame to lose it. I would hope it could be used for community use.
“I think there will be quite a battle if plans are submitted for it to be turned over to housing.”