Gateshead Council has taken a major step forward in seeking to resolve residents’ concerns over a new house on Whickham Bank.
A detailed planning application for a major re-design of the contentious and unfinished three-storey building have now been submitted by the owner and Gateshead Council has begun consulting local residents on the proposals.
The substantial re-design of the building is the result of lengthy discussions between the Council’s planning officers and the owner of Bank Top, a three-storey house under construction on Whickham Bank, Gateshead. Planning officers now believe the re-design will address local residents’ main concerns about outlook and privacy.
The new proposals include:
· A complete re-design of the dwelling , including changes to its height by removing the hipped roof,
· Alterations to the elevations, particularly the rear elevation facing Parkdale Rise,
· A detailed landscaping scheme to deal with outlook from neighbours rear gardens.
To ensure that local residents understand the new proposals, architects from Alston Murphy Associates and planning officers from Gateshead Council have invited residents to examine the plans and ask questions about them at a drop-in event at Whickham Library on Thursday 9 October between 1.00pm and 4.00pm.
The three-storey house had originally been granted planning permission unopposed in 1998. However, when construction began in 2003 and continued in 2005, local residents began to complain to Gateshead Council that the house was far larger than they expected, was overbearing and would affect their privacy. The Council asked for, and eventually secured through informal agreement, a halt to construction.
Initial negotiations with the owner to alter the design of the building failed, and Gateshead Council was forced to obtain permission from the Council’s Planning and Development Committee to serve a Section 102 Order to have the original planning permission rescinded and the property altered.
However, subsequent legal advice suggested that although the matter should not go on indefinitely, a negotiated outcome should definitely be fully explored prior to serving a Section 102 Order because that would add weight to the case and additionally there was always a risk that the courts might insist that the house should remain as it was originally approved
Paul Dowling, Director of Development and Enterprise, says: “This has been an extremely long and difficult process.
“After we obtained permission to seek a Section 102 Order, we discovered that our case would carry more weight if we could show that we had explored every avenue to reach a compromise with the owner.
“We think our efforts might at last have paid off. We have examined the new proposals very carefully and we believe they would, if approved, provide a positive outcome for local residents and take away the uncertainty of the result if we had sought a Section 102 order.
“We have taken a major step forward in the last few months – but we won’t know for certain until local residents and members of the Planning and Development Committee have had a chance to look at the new plans and the committee pass their judgment after considering all the relevant planning considerations.”
Public consultations on the new application are now underway and, depending on their outcome, its likely that the application will be formally considered by Gateshead’s Planning and Development Committee in November.