Pathfinder Building Programme Faces Collapse says FT

The Financial Times has ended the year with a bleak predition for the 11 demolition zones of the north. It uses Bellway in Walker as an example where just 52 new houses have been built in an estate that should have been 3 times as big.

This follows the FT report of a National Audit Office investigation of pathfinder that found it did almost the same as taking no action whatsoever. Meanwhile housing policy of both government and local authorities has led to a shortage of social housing and longer waiting lists.

Gateshead Council is still continuing with it's mass demolition policy as if it were in a time warp stuck in 1997 when John Prescott conceived the pathfinder scheme - a policy Prescott now says was mistaken.

Link
FT Article (4th Dec 2008)

Gateshead Council Send Christmas Message To Residents

Gateshead Council sent a unique form of Christmas Greeting to residents in Saltwell and Bensham today. Annelise Hutchinson, Head of Regulatory Services, Development and Enterprise sent a letter entitled; "Neighbourhood Notification About An Application For Determination Of Prior Approval".

It is worthwhile posting this title as a contender for the Sir Humphrey Appleby award for bureaucratic doublespeak. Those readers too young to remember Sir Humphrey should simply watch any DVD of "Yes, Minister" to find statements of the same ilk.

In actuality this is the bizarre notice that Gateshead Council have to send out to allow Gateshead Council to ask Gateshead Council if they can demolish people's homes. Gateshead being the applicant, the judge and the jury of an application to demolish.

Why cause such distress to residents at Christmas?

This is habitual. Gateshead Council almost always waits for a statutory holiday to produce important notices in the hope that residents preparing for Christmas don't notice the man from the council with the clipboard and bulldozer. They really don't care about pushing home some anxiety and stress to ordinary working people wanting a few days of decent time with family and friends. In the view of many residents the objective has always appeared to be - maximise psychological damage in order to drive people out of their homes.

Gateshead Council list homes they don't own as targets for demolition and may be breaking at least one undertaking they made to a Judge earlier this year. They try to get out of this by saying they are only seeking approval to demolish houses they own. Which begs the question why they list for a approval houses they dont own. Back to the tactic of generating fear, doubt and anxiety amongst residents.

A member of the Residents Association stopped by Gateshead Council today to collect paperwork on the proposed demolition. One council officer casually said that they [Gateshead Council] had no plans for development and were just going to grass over the area.

In order to avoid a proper environment impact assessment Gateshead Council have a letter from Government Office North East saying that an environmental impact assessment is not necessary. This is simply a casual disregard for the people who live in Saltwell and Bensham by a government minister.

SAVE Visit AGM

The highlight of this year's AGM was a keynote address by Will Palin of SAVE Britain's Heritage. Will, pictured on the right with our Chairman Tony Bone, came to talk about the work of SAVE with reference to the pathfinder programme.

SAVE have existed for 30 years as a charity devoted to stopping the destruction of our built environment. Will highlighted SAVE's controversial report on pathfinder back in 2004. Subsequently SAVE have spoken to pathfinder projects in Manchester and Lancashire about renovation rather than demolition.

This year SAVE took legal action against Gateshead Council over the issue of Enironmental Impact Assessments. Gateshead Council were forced to admit that they had acted unlawfully over demolition. Will explained that this was an important ruling because it forced councils into assessing the overall impact of demolishing houses that had stood for 100 years and replacing them with new houses that had an expected life of around 35 years.

On the day of the AGM Will had toured Scotswood. This is an area of Newcastle that has enough space to build 3,000 houses but was now a vacant space of grass. BridgingNewcastleGateshead, the pathfinder body for both Newcastle and Gateshead, admitted in their last annual report that only 63 houses had been built despite the demolition of thousands. Today both Newcastle and Gateshead have record numbers of homeless families.

After Will's address the formal AGM business began. The existing committee was re-elected but members were reminded that all committee meetings were open to members to bring their concerns about the area they lived in.

AGM 8th December 2008

The Annual General Meeting of the Saltwell and Bensham Residents Association will be held at 7pm in Whitehall Road Methodist Church Hall, Gateshead on Monday 8th December 2008.

Guest Speaker: Will Palin, SAVE Britain's Heritage