The saga over a controversial housing development on the Newcastle Quayside will now go to the High Court, it has emerged.
City council bosses have decided to mount a new legal challenge in a bid to stop almost 300 new riverside flats being built on the infamous Plot 12 site. The local authority had rejected proposals for a 14-storey apartment complex on the long-vacant patch of land in 2021, but saw that decision overturned by a Government planning inspector following a public inquiry earlier this year.
In a verdict issued in early May, inspector Claire Searson ruled in favour of applicants Packaged Living and Robertson Property building on the Homes England-owned site. That decision came as a major shock to neighbours who had vociferously opposed the £40m scheme, complaining that it would “devastate” living conditions of residents in the St Ann’s Quay building next door and destroy views to and from the historic St Ann’s Church.
Read More: Newcastle Quayside neighbours 'shocked' after controversial 14-storey apartment block approved
But the battle over the site, which is one of the last remaining empty plots on the Quayside, is not done yet. Newcastle City Council has confirmed that it will be taking the case to the High Court, challenging the planning inspector’s judgment.
A council spokesperson told ChronicleLive: “We have considered the decision in this case, and following legal advice have decided we will challenge the decision.”
It has been argued that the 289-flat block would create more than 700 construction jobs and boost spending in the local economy by an estimated £4m a year. The developers have also warned that a failure to get this Plot 12 scheme approved would risk leaving the prime land unoccupied for years to come, having already laid vacant for decades.
But opponents have branded the proposals “monolithic” and “painfully poor”, also arguing that the building’s future residents would be forced to live in flats that do not meet minimum space standards and that it would block out light to its neighbours.
Louise Richley, a director of the St Ann’s Quay building’s management company, said she was “very supportive” of the council's challenge and that the application had been “universally rejected” by Quayside residents. She added: “This is not just nimbyism, there is genuine concern about this being imposed on us.”
Packaged Living was contacted for a comment.
In her verdict, Mrs Searson had concluded that there was “no justification” to deny planning permission in order to wait for an alternative design to come forward on what is “an exceptionally difficult site to develop”. She added: “The benefits offered are significant and crucially, I have found that substantial weight should be attributed to the fact that the development is in public ownership, fully funded and deliverable in the context of a site which has never been realised in over 30 years and with significant remediation needs and viability issues.”
Read More:
