Fourth Attempt At Demolition By Gateshead Planners

On Thursday 18th February Gateshead Council put out notices on lamp posts saying they were applying for permission to demolish homes in the pathfinder area. This is the surreal world of Gateshead Council where the public sector is facing massive financial cutbacks and a huge housing shortage it is going to spend money demolishing houses people want to live in.

The process is; one department in Gateshead Council goes to Gateshead Council and asks permission, as the planning authority, to authorise the method of demolition they have choosen. This is not on the principle of demolition just the methodology. As usual the residents are last in the list of people who are considered in this process. The council will listen to residents views, tell them to shut up, and demolish. The first time this matter came to Gateshead Council the Secretary of Saltwell and Bensham Residents Association was told to shut up or she would be thrown out. Such is the contempt Gateshead Council has for it's own residents.

On the 3 previous occasions Gateshead Council planners went through the motions and the application was found to be unlawful. It took the actions of a national charity taking them to the high court before they "discovered" this on the first two occasions. Later on even the Secretary of State, through Government Office North East (GONE), told them they needed an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

This all very dry and bureaucratic stuff but basically European Law says you have to assess the damage to the environment of demolition. Something most ordinary citizens would expect a 21st century local authority would want to do. Unfortunately Gateshead Council is not a 21st century council but is embedded somewhere between the Jurassic and Medieval regarding itself as immune from European Law. So after 6 months of thinking about doing an Environmental Impact Assessment it has decided it, as the planning authority, doesn't need one. This is called a "screening opinion". This may leave them open to further legal challenge.

Silent in all of this is Gateshead Council's highly paid legal advisers. So far they have allowed 3 unlawful planning applications go to committee. Will this be a further embarrasing own goal.

Once again residents will have to send their objections into Gateshead Council so that the Planning Committee can carry out the usual condescending process of ignoring local people. If the screening opinion is not legal then once again Gateshead Council may have to explain to a Judge why it doesn't have to obey the law.