Member Article

North Tyneside Council want businesses' comments on borough development plans

North Tyneside Council and commercial partners Capita are seeking businesses’ views on development plans for the borough.

The partners’ ‘Local Plan’ outlines 110 potential sites for development of homes and business, and has already attracted 3,200 individual comments.

An initial consultation on the draft closes on January 6 at 5pm, and before that time businesses are encouraged to submit their thoughts.

Coun John Harrison, Cabinet member for Housing and Environment said: “I am delighted that so many people have already taken the time to respond to the plans and would like to thank them for doing so.

“As a council we want people to tell us what they think about the 110 potential sites and the policies that have been included in this document. We consider the feedback very important and it is an essential part of our consultation process, which aims to present every possible option and gauge resident feedback before we draw up any firm proposals.

Proposals to build homes on the site of Whitley Bay Ice Rink have sparked a campaign to stop the idea with a petitionset up.

“We can reassure people that no decisions have been taken, and as many of these sites - including the Whitley bay Ice Rink site - are not in the council’s ownership it will be subject to the agreement of those owners.

“Although 110 potential sites are included as part of the initial consultation, they will not all be needed.

“Due to changes in the population of North Tyneside we need to provide more homes. The government have recommended 16,000 but we have already taken on board public views and will instead be aiming for between 10,500 and 12,000 new homes in North Tyneside between now and 2030.

“There are already planning permissions for some 2,500 dwellings which comes off the overall total. This means the Council would need to find land to accommodate around 9,500 new homes. There are more sites in the draft summary than we would need so we are using this consultation as a means to help us determine which are the best sites to take forward.”

The Local Plan must pass through a series of formal stages before it is formally adopted. This is expected to take place in late 2015.

A summary leaflet explains the proposals in the Local Plan and comments can be submitted online via the planning consultation portal.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .