Over the last 4 years of resident resistance to demolition Gateshead Council have become more and more sophisticated at taking on the anger about demolition.
One of the latest tactics is to point young planners of tomorrow towards the notion that hard working families who live in old houses need to have them demolished whereas well-off people who live in old houses in affluent areas need their homes preserved for the nation.
Planning Resource have reported that delegates to this years' Young Planners Conference in NewcastleGateshead were shown the "success" of regeneration in Saltwell and Bensham. I doubt whether the council advertised the fact that there is a homeless crisis in Gateshead. Despite there being (allegedly) 600 empty properties in Saltwell and Bensham there are huge numbers of people waiting to be housed. The young planners will have been told that Gateshead now has 90 street captains advising them of what is going on. What they may not have mentioned is that the identities of the street captains are a secret so no-one actually knows who they are or how to contact them. They may not have mentioned the petition of 1,400 local people who rejected Gateshead Council's proposals.
Gateshead Council, at there last planning meeting to discussed development in Saltwell and Bensham, said they had no plans for the area other than to demolish and grass over the land. If Gateshead Council are influencing Young Planners of the future we can look forward to vast areas of green wilderness rather than housing.
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