A scrapped plan to spend more than £3m of public money on a hugely controversial development next to St James’ Park was “absolutely perfect”, a top official has claimed.
The North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) had looked set to pump £3.5m into a much-debated transformation of Strawberry Place in January, before a last minute U-turn that saw mayor Jamie Driscoll shelve the proposal. Just days later, it emerged that Newcastle United FC had bought back control of the land – much to the relief of football fans who had long opposed the development of flats, offices and a hotel on the site.
When the decision to defer the award of cash from the NTCA’s Brownfield Housing Fund was made, Mr Driscoll said there were “economic ramifications that don’t stack up” for the project and later that it was “not the sort of development that we wanted to fund” due to its lack of affordable homes. But combined authority officers this week came to the defence of the abandoned scheme as they were grilled over how it had come so close to being given a multi-million pound boost.
Read More: Strawberry Place purchase ignites fresh Newcastle United fan debate over future of St James’ Park
At an overview and scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, Newcastle Lib Dem councillor Greg Stone questioned the merits of the development – saying he was “not sure I would have seen it entirely contributing to the region’s aspirations for brownfield regeneration”.
But, asked if the move to recommend the £3.5m grant for approval by the mayor and his cabinet was a “finely balanced” decision, NTCA director of policy Ruth Redfern replied: “I think all of our officer recommendations are absolutely perfect.” She called the process that led to politicians choosing to sideline the scheme a “perfect example” of democracy functioning.
Ahead of January’s decision, an NTCA report had claimed that the development would support more than 1,700 construction jobs and put £670m into the regional economy within 10 years. It was said that the project, which included 328 flats, an office block and a 213-bedroom hotel, had a funding gap “caused by site remediation and high abnormal costs”.
Vicky Cuthbertson, the authority’s housing and land manager, insisted on Tuesday that the project would have “met the criteria of the funding” and not been detrimental to any other developments seeking support – despite potentially taking up more than 10% of the North of Tyne’s £32m brownfield housing allocation from the Government. Ms Cuthbertston also said the combined authority had received “no further correspondence” about the ownership of the Strawberry Place land since media reports in February that the football club had secured its future.
Coun Stone also repeatedly asked what talks were held with the mayor and local council leaders while the proposals were being worked up. Ms Redfern said: “We always follow a protocol in terms of discussion with the portfolio holder, discussion with the mayor, before things come to cabinet. If the politicians themselves wish to discuss that then obviously what we would do is provide them with the information and they would have that discussion between themselves.
“That is our normal process and we obviously encourage the politicians and our cabinet to discuss these things as thoroughly as possible so that they are confident and comfortable with the decision they make. I don’t doubt that on this occasion this is exactly what happened and they chose to defer it.”
She added: “The officers would always brief the portfolio holders and brief the mayor… there is a lot of work that goes into these things and we always make sure that cabinet members have access to that before we get to cabinet.”
NUFC fans have hoped that the Strawberry Place land could be used in a future expansion of St James’ Park, though it is unclear whether the club’s Saudi-led ownership will pursue that. It has also been reported that the site could be turned into a fanzone. The land had been sold by former Magpies owner Mike Ashley, much to the anger of supporters.
It was later acquired by property developers High Street Group, but then taken over by Reditum Capital when the Newcastle-based firm ran into financial difficulties. Reditum confirmed in February that it had “agreed a deal which will ensure that the future development at Strawberry Place will now be in line with the plans of the football club”.
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