Another major housing development will be built in the north west of Newcastle, after councillors signed off on controversial plans for a 900-home estate.
The Kingston Village development won the backing of Newcastle City Council on Thursday lunchtime, despite dozens of objections from locals, environmental activists and rival housebuilders. Banks Property’s plans will see hundreds of family homes built on a patch of former Green Belt land to the west of Brunton Lane, between Kingston Park and Dinnington, as well as a new primary school.
Wildlife campaigners have complained that the £178m project will put “yet more pressure on the delicate ecosystem” in an area that has already been subject to a major transformation over recent years with the development of the neighbouring Newcastle Great Park estate. There has also been a bitter row between Banks and the firms behind the Great Park, who claim that a failure to build a new link road between the two major sites will force people down an “unsafe rat run” country lane.
Read More: 900-home Newcastle housing estate could be approved this week despite 'grave concerns'
Civic centre planning officials admitted that the Kingston Village plan would breach numerous council development policies, but concluded it would only cause limited harm that would be outweighed by the economic benefits of bringing 900 new homes to the city. Members of the local authority’s planning committee voted to grant permission for the scheme by a six to three margin.
A total of 75 objections were made by nearby residents, with concerns including “grave misgivings” about how the area will cope with an influx of traffic to the 900-home estate and claims that it will “cut off vital wildlife corridors”, though 49 people also wrote to express their support.
Persimmon Homes’ Lee Crawford, one of the developers behind the Great Park, told councillors on Thursday that Banks’ proposal to widen Little Brunton Lane rather than build a new, bigger link to the Great Park would create an “unsafe rat run which services 900 homes”. He argued that the negatives of the new estate had been “consistently downplayed” in the council’s assessment and accused Banks of having “never had any interest” in buying land from the Great Park consortium that had been reserved for the link road and of spending years trying to “erode the council’s resolve”.
David Abercrombie, of fellow Great Park builder Taylor Wimpey, added that the plans would stop people using Little Brunton Lane as a walking and cycling route. However, Banks’ environment and community director Mark Dowdall insisted that Kingston Village will be an “exceptional development” and a “special place to live”, claiming that the consortium developers were objecting because they viewed it as competition to the Great Park.
He talked up a proposed £18m of improved local infrastructure, including three new footpaths and cycleways as well as an extension of the X47 bus service from Kingston Park. Mr Dowdall added that a failure to reach an agreement over land reserved for a new link road was “not for the want of trying”, but the widened Little Brunton Lane has been heavily scrutinised by council transport officials over the last four years and deemed safe.
The new estate, which has also attracted objections from Newcastle International Airport, will also feature a shop, café and a village green. It is expected that 375 of the new homes will be built by 2030.
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