March 19, 2020
The proposal for an ambitious £692m housing development for South Tyneside includes planting over 45,000 trees and the creation of 85 hectares of publicly accessible green infrastructure and 5 hectares of NEW playing fields.
The Laverick Park Garden Community development follows Garden Village Principles and essentially proposes three new villages, each with its own supporting services and facilities, connected to each other but contained within a highly defined site and the defensible boundaries of major infrastructure. The villages will contain a wide variety of homes designed for different ages including 600 affordable homes (sometimes also referred to as “social housing”), all of which will be built to high quality design standards and surrounded by a diverse landscape featuring extensive walking and cycling routes and links via new public transport to the nearby Fellgate Metro Station.
Situated to the south of Fellgate in South Tyneside and bounded by three existing strategic arterial roads (the A184, A19 and A194), proposes a 20 year construction scheme which could create 320 construction jobs every year in addition to 720 permanent on site and off site.
However, the scheme has been overlooked by South Tyneside Council’s Draft Local Plan which proposes 18 smaller piecemeal Green Belt releases totalling 2,391 houses, much of which will result in significant new housing development imposed on the less sustainable Villages of Whitburn, Cleadon and the Boldons.
Edward Yuill, Managing Director of Cecil M Yuill Ltd, a partner in Laverick Hall Farm Ltd, commented, “The Council have publicly stated that they wish to be carbon neutral by 2030 yet their Draft Local Plan, actually flies in the face of this laudable ambition by not only proposing the building of new homes on existing public green spaces, including vital playing fields, but also including little green infrastructure and spreading construction disruption over existing established neighbourhoods.”
“By concentrating construction in one area, the overall disruption to the Borough as a whole will be minimised whilst the scheme itself is one of the most exciting and ambitious projects in the North East Region and would be a landmark development for South Tyneside. It would create a totally self-sustaining new community, built around creating three new villages, all set within outstanding green spaces, parkland and landscaping which follows Garden Village Principles. Our scheme represents cutting-edge thinking on sustainable development and would deliver considerable socio-economic benefits to South Tyneside.”
“Environmentally, we are proposing the planting of 45,000 new trees and 85 hectares of green infrastructure or almost half the total 192 hectare site. A new Linear Park runs through the heart of the development providing substantial green lungs which will all be publicly accessible and create considerable environmental enhancement opportunities. Through new planning and habitat creation, we will achieve net gains for biodiversity and wildlife. We’re also keen to hear the community’s ideas on how these 85 hectares of green space can be used to enhance the environmental quality of the borough.”
“Because Laverick Park is being planned as a self-sustaining new community with shops, services, jobs and other community facilities hard-wired in right from the start, residents will be able to carry out many day-to-day trip purposes within the development itself, rather than using the car. It will be a truly sustainable living environment of the highest quality. The villages will contain a network of footpaths and cycleways for public access whilst we are also proposing a new high frequency ‘Metro Shuttle’ bus connecting Laverick Park to Fellgate Metro Station and a second high-frequency shuttle bus from the Metro Station, through Laverick Park and onto the IAMP. We’re also looking at how we can embed other measures such as electric car charging into the development.”
“The overall location is perfect for the development whilst the ‘Garden Community’ form of the development, built on the edge of the urban area to provide the best of town and country, takes advantage of the existing infrastructure and would ensure the existing villages of Whitburn, Cleadon and Boldon – the principal locations of the Council’s alternative schemes – are left largely undisturbed.”
“We are also exploring the feasibility of providing an environmentally friendly district heating system to power the development. Unlike the Draft Local Plan’s proposed smaller, dispersed housing sites, the critical mass created at Laverick Park allows forward-thinking infrastructure of this nature to become a reality.”
“I am extremely excited about the huge opportunities which Laverick Park creates. Through off-s etting measures, our aim is to minimise or even eliminate the carbon footprint of the development. By planning comprehensively, in a joined-up way, at the Garden Community scale, Laverick Park provides an unrivalled opportunity to help the Council achieve its carbon neutral 2030 objectives. This needs to be about more than words – Laverick Park provides the opportunity to help make this reality. We would now very much like to work with the Council to harness the opportunities that Laverick Park presents.”
“We truly believe construction of new homes at Laverick Park in this location represents the most sustainable strategy for the delivery of housing with South Tyneside and hope the Council will now reconsider the inclusion of the scheme in the next draft of the Local Plan due later this year
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