Controversial plans to build 99 new homes in the shadow of an NHS facility have taken a significant step forward - despite fears hundreds of future jobs could be lost.
The request for outline planning permission at the site south of the NHS manufacturing and innovation hub was submitted to Northumberland County Council by a Brighton-based developer in February.
A previous application for 92 homes on the same site saw councillors unable to make a decision at a meeting of the Cramlington, Bedlington and Seaton Valley Local Area Committee in October after the NHS raised objections. Bellway later withdrew the application before a final decision was rubber-stamped by the committee.
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Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust say the wider site has huge potential to provide Northumbria Healthcare office, manufacturing and warehousing space to "service their own supply chain and meet clinical and operational functions both within Northumberland and across the wider region moving forward". The health service feared that the potential development could have an impact on future uses of the site.
The trust has reiterated similar concerns about the latest application, and when the new plans were debated at the committee's latest meeting, councillors remained similarly divided. Local resident Nigel Hall urged members to refuse the plans.
He said: "I can't see any reason whatsoever to build 99 houses and in doing so jeopardise 490 NHS jobs. I don't see how two such opposing developments can be allowed to sit alongside each other.
"The people of Seaton Delaval are used to the industrial site as it is, but to put housing right next to it and ask there to be harmony is just asking for trouble. You're going to get complaints from both sides."
Labour's Coun Les Bowman, who represents the Holywell ward and is a Seaton Delaval resident, agreed with Mr Hall's points.
He added: "The NHS are not happy - they say it would be detrimental to their operation, which is 24 hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. It is a very important part of the infrastructure of the UK, it's not a small factory.
"I do want good quality housing, but to chose this particular site is a big mistake. I can guarantee that as soon as the residents move in they will be complaining about the light, noise and access.
"We have got an opportunity to use this critical infrastructure to bring in something really good to the valley, and I don't want 99 houses stopping that."
However, the NHS has yet to put in any sort of planning application for the site, and council officers had recommended the proposals for approval.
The council's head of planning, Rob Murfin, said: "This has to be based on what is in front of us. I have heard a lot of feelings, but we need to look at the actual evidence. Sometimes the evidence is counter-intuitive to us."
Members voted to grant outline permission by three votes to one, with three councillors choosing to abstain. Before the homes are built, a second "reserved matters" application will need to be submitted and approved.
