New Plan To Build 3,000 Homes In Gateshead Without Demolition

Gateshead's political leadership seem to have woken up to the fact that pathfinder money isn't easy money. This week the building of 3,000 homes in brownfield sites was announced along with the regeneration of the town centre. The town centre project is in collaboration with designer Wayne Hemmingway. Hemmingway is increasingly focussed on good urban design and might help Gateshead break out of their fixation that growth is equal to demolition.

The political cost of demolition is on the mind of former Newcastle City Labour Councillors. Their misguided mass demolition programmes have led to electoral disaster. In the west of the city they depopulated the area to remove the Scotswood Ward and replace it with a merged Benwell and Scotswood Ward. In west city the Moorside ward has disappeared. In the east of the city Monkchester ward is a memory. All in all 9 Labour councillors sacrificed. Newcastle has gone from 3.5 Labour MPs to 3 with 2 seats now Lib-Dem targets. An own goal of monumental political suicide.

Newcastle Labour Councillors are said to be baffled by Gateshead Council plans to demolish 440 homes in safe Labour seats in central Gateshead. The lessons of recent political history are only useful if politicians learn them.

Pathfinders Facing Uncertain Future

The dubious state of the pathfinder agenda was highlighted this week by Inside Housing. This years' building programme from BridgingNewcastleGateshead (BNG) has been reduced from a planned 150 to just 63. Meanwhile it is unlikely that project at Cruddas park will go ahead at all.

The bottom line, as discovered by the National Audit Office Report, is that pathfinders have made almost no difference to the markets but ruined the lives of many ordinary people.

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Gateshead Council has unusual tribute to Lewis Hamilton

In a warped tribute to Lewis Hamilton's Grand Prix victory contractors used by Gateshead Council have turned streets in Saltwell and Bensham into a race track. Over the last two weeks the green areas created by the demolition of two thirds of Armstrong Street have been gravelled over and turned into a builders yard. The purpose of the yard has now been revealed. It seems to be a staging post for contractors used by Gateshead Council to renovate other properties in the area.

However in some kind of strange tribute to Lewis Hamilton the contractors now race dumper trucks and JCBs up and down the back lanes between residents' homes. One resident has nearly been knocked over and two bollards, ironically installed to stop joy riding, have been smashed through by the would be Formula One builders. 

In MacAdam Street a series of holes have been dug along the street for the so-called purpose of disconnecting electric meters. Just how digging holes in the pathway will help remove meters from inside houses is anyones guess. It does have the effect of making the street impossible to walk down by the remaining residents resisting demolition. 

Making the blighted streets of central Gateshead more unpleasant for demolition protesters seems to be a full time job for council employees. Meanwhile in other parts of the borough Gateshead Council claims to be acting against anti-social behaviour. Perhaps they could start by policing their own contractors.

Putting The Record Straight

In a strange move Gateshead Council have published a newsletter in the area they have blighted with their demolition proposals. The newsletter, marked issue number 1, declares itself able to counter misleading statements about council policy. Given Gateshead Council's record the reaction from the first residents to receive the newsletter was "this ought to be good!".

Newsletter number one begs the question that, after 3 years of sentencing central gateshead to mass demolition, why it has taken so long to produce issue one. Could it be the intense campaign of residents against demolition? Perhaps it was the 1400 signature petitions that moved the council to write? Whatever the reason residents should be at least grateful that after 3 years the council believes it should finally communicate!

The newsletter is also curious in it's colour. Gone is the unmistakable Gateshead Council bold red. Instead the newsletter looks like a party political leaflet in Conservative blue.

The meat of the exercise was the fact that Gateshead Council had unlawfully carried our demolition after failing to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment. Normally breaking the law is considered to be a serious matter, particularly for a public authority that ought to know better. Instead of an apology we are told that breaking the law will only "delay" the council plans.

Gateshead Council complain that a group that campaigns nationally against pathfinder took them to court. As if this fully explains their unlawful actions. The facts are a somewhat different. SAVE Britain's Heritage is in fact a national charity. Their objectives are the preservation of the best of Britain's built environment. They have been campaigning for 30 years and their website documents many successes in saving buildings.

SAVE did a report on pathfinder which anyone can read. Other people have reported on pathfinder too. The National Audit Office and a select committee of MPs. None have actually said that pathfinder was value for money. SAVE is certainly not unique. Professor David Byrne of the University of Durham, a man with a special interest in urban development, has condemned pathfinder in Saltwell & Bensham.

SAVE have visited the area and have been shocked by the damage caused by Gateshead Council. SAVE wrote to the council asking them about an environmental impact assessment. Our residents group has mentioned this several times without the courtesy of a reply. Prof Byrne has raised this issue at our public meetings where local councillors were present. Doing an environment impact survey is even part of planning law. Gateshead Council have only themselves to blame for breaking the law. They waited until someone took them to court before admitting their error. This is the second time in 12 months they have been successfully defeated in court over demolition.

Gateshead Council would like to suggest that people are "enthusiastically" offering their homes for sale. The current street which has been demolished illegally was mostly owned by Gateshead Council having purchased around half in 2002 for "refurbishment". Once demolition money was available these houses were then labelled as "uninhabitable". There has now been 3 years of blight imposed on the area by Gateshead Council. By degree the council have made the place unpleasant to live in using the tactic of boarding up aquired property to give a feeling of insecurity and abandonment.

There is no "pent up demand" to sell but rather desperate home owners not knowing what the future holds having to sell to Gateshead Council because of the stress of the uncertainty over council proposals. This suits the council well as, according to the Rowntree Foundation, pathfinders offer some £35,000 below real market prices in these blighted areas. One 74 year old owner said at a public meeting that he didn't want to lose his home and hoped he would pass away before being pressured into a sale.

Sheila Johnson, Gateshead Council's Director of Development, said at a public meeting with over 100 residents in 2005, that Saltwell and Besham Residents Association would be involved with proposals in the area. Since then we have heard nothing from her to facilitate communication. Instead this newsletter announces the existance of a residents reference group to help the council. The fact is that the residents reference group is a "top down" organisation created by Gateshead Council to nod through the demolition proposals. When it first met the council used Planning Aid North, a group funded by the same department as the pathfinder demolition programme, to put on design workshops that were teaching basic principles of design. They stressed that this was principles and not about Gateshead. However on their last seminar the keynote speaker from Gateshead Council was introduced and he highlighted the council vision. In other words Planning Aid were used as a trojan horse to build up a supporters group for demolition. At a later Council Planning Meeting it was suggested that mere attendence at these design events was a vote of confidence in the demolition programme.

Then the was the grass. If only SAVE hadn't taken the Council to court the area would be a green space fully grassed over according to the newsletter. Until last week there was grass growing in place of peoples' homes. Unfortunately this week the environment has been spoilt by the creation of a "builders yard" on the new green area. Gateshead Council didn't have to dump half a tonne of aggregate over green grass but it has. Not a good advertisement for their green credentials.

So we loved reading the newsletter unfortunately it told residents almost nothing of the real story.