A High Court hearing to decide the fate of one of Newcastle’s most controversial developments has opened, with council bosses "at a loss" to explain why it was approved.
A judge will have the final say on whether almost a 14-storey block of flats, branded by critics as “monolithic”, can be built on one of the last undeveloped plots of land on the Quayside. The long-running saga over the infamous Plot 12 site had seen Newcastle City Council reject plans for a 14-storey apartment complex in 2021, before that decision was overturned by a government planning inspector after a week-long public inquiry earlier this year.
The local authority then lodged a challenge against the Planning Inspectorate verdict and a statutory review into the decision kicked off on Wednesday. It had been claimed that the £40m vision from Packaged Living and Robertson Property to develop the Homes England-owned riverside site, which has lain vacant for decades, would “devastate living conditions” for residents next door and “decimate” views to and from the historic St Ann’s Church.
