South Tyneside Council has published its draft Reg 19 Local Plan (LP) in a report to go to the Cabinet meeting on 3rd January 2024. The report is available here but it’s 10+Mb should you wish to download it. More information is available on the Council’s website.
The key area of interest affecting East Boldon is new housing development.The only site within the East Boldon Forum area now proposed for new housing development is North Farm, adjacent to Boker Lane and New Road where 263 houses could be built. This site is currently within the green belt and the draft LP proposes to amend the green belt policy to exclude this site.
In the previous draft Reg 18 LP published in June 2022, a further two sites were allocated for new housing in East Boldon – Land south of St John’s Terrace and Natley Avenue and the MoD site. These are no longer included. Further information about this housing allocation can be found on page 46 of the draft LP – Policy SP7 Urban and Village Sustainable Growth areas. An associated map is on page 48, with the overall policies map as Appendix 2 following page 210.
If Cabinet approves the report, public consultation on the draft plan will start on the15th January for a period of six weeks. Council staff will present details of the draft Plan in East Boldon Junior School at 6pm on Tuesday 16th January. (Full details of the consultation on page 15 of the Cabinet report)
Further headline details from the draft Reg 19 LP:
- There were nearly 1,900 comments on the 2022 draft version of the plan.
- The plan will run from 2023 to 2040 – a 15 year period if approved in 2025.
- The Council failed its Housing Delivery Test again for 2022, one of 59 local authorities to do so; it has only 2.6 years supply. It is subject to a presumption in favour of development because of this.
- Under Para 230 of the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), if a plan is published before 19 March 2024 then it will be examined under the old version of the NPPF.
- The Spatial strategy of the new version of the plan remains the same, using the standard method calculation for the housing requirement and amending the Green Belt boundary. However, they will not apply the 15 % buffer.
- The new Housing Requirement figure across the borough is 5,253, which is 309 homes per year, down from 321. New planning permissions granted have reduced the housing requirement to 3,443. The draft LP provides for a total of 3,498 new homes as follows:
o Housing Sites in the main Urban Area -1,190 across 27 sites
o Green Belt sites – 1,108 across 6 sites (including 263 for the East Boldon neighbourhood Plan area)
o Fellgate Sustainable Growth Area – 1,200 – this will include a new local centre with shops, health facilities and primary school.
We will produce a more detailed commentary on the draft LP once it has been formally approved and put out to consultation.
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If you live or work in the East Boldon Forum area then you are welcome to join the Forum. Please get in touch with us.
If you wish to contact us for any reason please leave your details on the Contact Us page.