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Grey Horse Pub

East Boldon Neighbourhood Forum

Welcome to our website! Our Neighbourhood Plan is complete and following the referendum in October 2021 has been adopted by South Tyneside Council.

The Forum’s work continues and details of the next member’s meeting will be published here when available.

On Thursday 27 February 2025 South Tyneside Council met and again voted 27 to 23 to REJECT the Local Plan. However, on 4 March 2025 the Minister of State for Housing and Planning intervened and directed that the Council MUST submit the plan for public examination by 12 March 2025. See here for more details.

Other recent activity and news includes:

Forum re-designation

The Forum successfully applied to South Tyneside Council for re-designation as a Neighbourhood Forum, this was confirmed at a cabinet meeting on 4 January 2023.

Click here for information on the Community Actions which were included in the Neighbourhood Plan and please let us know if you have any ideas about them or you’d like to help.

If you have any questions about the Forum or the Neighbourhood Plan please leave a message on the website or send a text to 07435373879. Please remember to provide some contact details.

For a quick overview of the policies in the Plan please see this page or click here to read the full plan.

Progress Timeline:

The Forum has been active since 2016. We have created a visual timeline to show the progress which has been achieved since the idea of a Neighbourhood Forum for East Boldon was first suggested in November 2016. Please click to see more details.

We will add more information and links to support each of the items on the timeline as they become available.

Neighbourhood Forums have a legal standing and allow residents to influence (but not prevent) future development in their area. The East Boldon Neighbourhood Forum was designated by South Tyneside Council in January 2018. Since then, the Forum has been working on the development of a Neighbourhood Plan which will be subject to a referendum later in 2021.

Funding, Independence and Membership

The Forum is an independent body which was previously mainly funded by Government grants which were specifically available to support the development of Neighbourhood Plans across the country. However, once the Neighbourhood Plan is in place such funding is no longer available.

In March 2024 a Just Giving page was made available to allow anyone who wished to to contribute a small amount to the running of the Forum.

The Forum does not support nor is it linked to or supported by any political party.

It is required to work with interested stakeholders and consequently will continue to work with Council representatives and Councillors to ensure the delivery of a Neighbourhood Plan for East Boldon.

Anyone over the age of 16 who lives, works or is an elected councillor in the Forum area (which includes elements of the Cleadon / East Boldon and West Boldon / Boldon Colliery council wards) is entitled to become a member of the Forum. If you’d like to join the Forum, please complete the application form and we’ll get in touch with you.

A selection of previous posts:

Green Belt

Council To Vote Again On Local Plan

Following the release of the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in December 2024, South Tyneside Council will vote again on the Local Plan at meeting on Thursday 27 February. What is the Forum’s view ?
Read More
Green Belt

Council Local Plan Rejected By Councillors, More Green Belt At Risk ?

South Tyneside Council met on Thursday 5 September and councillors voted 26 to 23 with one abstention to reject the latest version of their Local plan. This means that it will not proceed to the Secretary of State for examination and adoption. With the proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework is this Good news or BAD ??
Read More
St George's Chruch, East Boldon

Improvements to the area in front of St Georges Church

An application has been lodged with South Tyneside Council for improvement work to the overgrown area in front of St George’s church. The application is about opening up the area to make it more visually attractive and addresses one of the items which was frequently raised during consultations on the development of the neighbourhood plan. The application DOES NOT require the removal of any trees from the site.
Read More

SAFC Solar Farm

SAFC has lodged an application with South Tyneside Council for the installation of a renewable energy generating solar farm comprising photovoltaic array with substation, transformer stations, switchrooms, site accesses, internal access, security fencing, access gates, ancillary infrastructure and biodiversity enhancements on land to the East and West of the Academy of Light, Cleadon, Sunderland.
Read More

For more details on the Forum please see the About Us or Forum Facts pages.

If you wish to contact us for any reason please leave your details on the Contact Us page.

Forum Officers

All members of the Forum are volunteers from the local community, the current elected Officials are:

Kirstin RichardsonChair
Roy WilburnVice Chair
Dave HutchinsonSecretary
Grahame TobinTreasurer

Photographs courtesy of Phil Payne