Time may have run out for ambitious hopes of building Europe’s biggest ferris wheel in Newcastle.
Planning permission for the huge Whey Aye wheel development officially lapsed at midnight today (Friday), after years of uncertainty surrounding the project. City council chiefs have refused to comment on what the future now holds for the publicly-owned former Spillers flour mill site, while the firm behind the £100m plans says it is exploring “a number of options” to revive the scheme.
The World Wheel Company’s vision for the vacant riverside plot was revealed in 2019 and touted as “the most exciting project in the UK”. But the lofty proposals have been in doubt for some time – with no sign of construction work starting amid repeated delays that were pinned on the massive disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and then the war in Ukraine.
Read More: Doubts surround plans for Newcastle's huge Whey Aye wheel
Last year, the developer’s chief executive also accused Newcastle City Council leader Nick Kemp of “killing” the Spillers Quay scheme, which it was hoped would create hundreds of jobs. The observation wheel itself would have been the largest in Europe, standing 460ft tall, while the plans also featured a 39ft human-shaped statue called The Geordie Giant, a virtual golf club, and a family entertainment centre as part of a wider leisure complex known as the Giants on the Quayside.
But the three years that the developer was given by Newcastle City Council to start building work has now run out and their planning permission has expired, while an agreement over the lease of the land lapsed almost a year ago. While the local authority confirmed that the permission had lapsed as of Friday, June 23, civic centre bosses declined to comment when the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) asked what would come next for the much-discussed site.
The disused land, located between the Ouseburn and St Peter’s Basin, is jointly owned by the council and Homes England. Last December, the council told the LDRS that it believed the Spillers Quay site would be of “major interest” to investors if the Whey Aye plans fell through.
The World Wheel Company has refused to give up on the scheme – insisting it could still be delivered. A spokesperson for the company said: “Although planning permission for our proposed development lapses on June 23, we are still considering a number of options that will allow us to deliver Giants on the Quayside.”
If the World Wheel Company wanted to press ahead with the development, it would now have to submit a new planning application to the council. One of the firm’s four directors, chief executive Phil Lynagh, resigned last week, according to documents on Companies House.
In a social media post last September, Mr Lynagh had accused city council leader Nick Kemp of “killing our planned development which would create hundreds of jobs in the Byker and Walker constituencies”. The Byker ward councillor, who took over as council leader in 2022, has been a vocal critic of the Whey Aye in the past.
He had previously called the plans “environmentally destructive” and accused the developers in 2019 of showing “absolute contempt” to residents.
The Giants on the Quayside project had the backing of the Labour-run council under the previous Nick Forbes-led administration. Former cabinet member Ged Bell had described it as “an economic driver that our city simply cannot afford to turn down”.
While the council’s planning committee gave their approval for the project in 2019, it took until the following June for formal planning permission to be issued – with the decision including a condition that development “shall begin not later than the expiration of three years”.
