A 14-storey block of flats planned for the Newcastle Quayside was branded “painfully poor” on the opening day of a public inquiry to decide the controversial project’s fate.
Newcastle City Council rejected proposals for 289 apartments on the long vacant Plot 12 site on the riverside last year.
But developers have appealed that verdict and triggered a planning inquiry where they will seek to have it overturned.
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At the first session of the hearing at Newcastle Civic Centre on Tuesday morning, opposing parties clashed as they set out their cases to planning inspector Claire Searson.
Paul Tucker QC, representing developers Robertson and Packaged Living, told the inquiry that Plot 12 has been “in obvious need of regeneration since it was cleared and remediated a quarter of a century ago” and was the final section of the original masterplan for the Quayside that is yet to be developed.
He said the apartment complex, which attracted hundreds of public objections, would represent a “landmark building” of high-quality design that was not significantly bigger than its surroundings.
But David Hardy, a barrister representing residents of neighbouring St Ann’s Quay, said the building was no more than a “dull, mundane block of flats” that would be “devastating” for residents next door, due to a loss of daylight and privacy.
He added: “The proposed development is painfully poor as an attempt to design the right building for Plot 12.”
Mr Hardy said that residents of St Ann’s Quay, who have been vocal opponents of the Plot 12 plans since they emerged, accept that the land will be built on – but that this scheme is out of keeping with the rest of the Quayside and not special enough to justify a “contrarian design”.
The council’s planning committee rejected the scheme by an 11-1 vote in 2021 on the grounds that it was too big and would have a negative impact on local heritage assets, particularly by damaging views to and from St Ann’s Church.
Anjoli Foster, representing the council on Tuesday, said it was the “wrong development” for the site and would cause “a number of significant fundamental harms”.
Since the initial verdict last March, the council has also adopted a stricter policy on space standards for new-build housing and Ms Foster said that the majority of future residents of the Plot 12 site, potentially 300 people, would be forced to live in undersized homes if it was built.
Mr Tucker claimed it was “not logical” to suggest that the size of the flats was judged acceptable 12 months ago but not now due to a change in an “abstract standard”.
He said the block had been designed directly in response to a brief prepared by Homes England, in conjunction with the city council itself, and that there was a “compelling case” for it to be approved – with suggestions it could create more than 700 construction jobs and boost spending in the local economy by £4m a year.
Following early opposition to the designs, the massive apartment block had been redrawn to reduce its height by two storeys, move it 1.5m further away from St Ann’s Quay, and remove a ‘nib’ from one corner to improve views from the church.
The inquiry is scheduled to sit for up to seven days.
