Tyneside Committee Report
Report by Mike Casselden, Chair of the Tyneside Committee
The Committee continues to monitor environmental changes and proposals for development affecting historic assets in Newcastle and North Tyneside. This brings demanding tasks for Committee members tracking new developments such as the future use of the Art Deco Co-operative building and uncertain progress on the Pilgrim’s Way redevelopment, ostensibly complicated by changes in private ownership and the fluctuating economy. Work continues on our project encouraging the setting up of a Conservation Advisory panel in North Tyneside, following the example of Newcastle. We are currently identifying local historic groups, which may have an interest in pursuing this and progress will be reported in due course.
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Ironwork at Tynemouth Station
Regarding the recent public inquiry involving Tynemouth Metro Station, we were very disappointed to learn that the Inspector decided to allow the appeal against a refusal to permit the addition of a Tesco supermarket to the grade 2* listed building. There were considerable local objections, but North Tyneside Council has decided that a legal challenge to the decision would be unlikely to succeed. Our particular concerns were a failure to receive prior notice of the public inquiry and no mention in the appeal decision of our original objections. These matters have been raised with both the Council and the Planning Inspectorate and responses are awaited.
We continue to be represented on Newcastle City Council Conservation Advisory Committee and NCAP, the voluntary conservation advisory committee made up from various experts in listed buildings and conservation areas plus representatives of local amenity and professional bodies. Welcome news for Newcastle is that the Council has been very active achieving all its strategic objectives for managing its conservation areas, during the current year.
Several excellent documents affording guidance for owners and occupiers of listed buildings and residents of conservation areas have been published and can be accessed via the Council’s excellent web site. Indeed, everything needed to inform one about Newcastle’s heritage assets are here under one roof: www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/conservationadvice. Also for the first time, a new online home for all searchable national heritage assets and local environmental records is in one place: www.heritagegateway.org.uk/gateway. At last, the historic environment is getting the open publicity and priority it deserves.
The management of conservation areas, listed buildings and indeed whole gamut of our historic assets is finally recognised to be a necessary partnership in which we all have a stake in securing the future of our rich heritage. Without the contribution made by owners and occupiers plus members of societies such as ours, much of its value would be lost.
Other successes in Newcastle include a more positive response by the Council to our call for more article 4 directions giving closer control over alterations to buildings in conservation areas. This summer consultation with residents of the Gosforth conservation area about a new proposal will start. The fruits of our ‘Cut the Clutter’ campaign to tackle the over-display of advertisements are seeing success, hence the Council’s negotiated removal of several display boards on the edge of the Gosforth conservation area in Salter’s Road.
Lastly, the Government has now allocated grants to the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE), the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Planning Aid Service and the Prince’s Trust, to provide assistance to local communities wishing to produce neighbourhood plans. We have been approached by the CPRE to have talks about the initiative and what role we can play in assisting. My own view is that realistically we just don’t have the people or resources to get involved as a Society, although individual members with the right skills and enthusiasm may wish to get involved in their local communities on their own behalf.
City and County
May 2011
