Bellway Homes has submitted a planning application to build over 200 new houses on the former Wallsend Sports Centre site next to Wallsend (Centurion Park) Golf Club.

We call on everyone to make a stand against this proposal. We are losing too many green spaces within the borough and beyond, meaning less open space for our children to play, grow up and be physically active within their local communities.

Please follow this to sign and support Wallsend Boys Club to protect our local green spaces.

**Please note we are not expecting supporters to donate money to this cause via this link**

Object directly via North Tyneside Council planning portal here

Sign our petition here

Bellway’s planning application went before elected members on North Tyneside’s Planning Committee on 17th January and was unfortunately passed by 6 Councillors to 3, after they were guided by NTC Officers that they should be “minded to grant” permission.
We have taken legal advice from a specialist Planning Lawyer and his opinion is that these elected members may have been let down by Council Officers into believing that NTC’s Green Space Strategy (2015) and
Playing Pitch Strategy (2013) are still valid, when they are 8 years and 10 years out of date respectively.
The Planning Lawyer believes elected members cannot be expected to reach a reasonable decision for the
Borough without current Strategy documents to guide them and we therefore consider the Club has strong
enough grounds to challenge their decision with a Judicial Review and have advised NTC of our intention.
This has prompted NTC to contact the Club to confirm that the application will now be reconsidered on
Tuesday March 14th, the next scheduled meeting of the Planning Committee…
“In light of the issues raised it intends to present the planning application to the Planning Committee for
reconsideration.” Julia Dawson, Principal Planning Officer

What does this mean to you?-

It means we all have another chance to let NTC know how strongly we object to Bellway’s development plans for 215 houses at Wallsend Sports Centre, that we are supposed to believe will only add 109 additional journeys to local traffic (when an independent survey estimates 440)..
North Tyneside officers informed councillors that traffic software estimated the new homes would produce
only an additional 109 journeys in the morning and 108 in the evening.
Despite hundreds of local residents expressing their objections to losing valuable open space for exercise
and dog walking at Wallsend Sports Centre, the Council Officers do not agree: –
“…the southern part of the site (parcel B), although currently accessible and used for dog walking etc., is of
limited quality given that it is not maintained and consists of derelict sporting infrastructure (i.e,
the redundant MUGAs and AGP)…” [Note: MUGA = Multi-Use Games Area / AGP = Artificial Grass Pitch]

That begs several questions – why hasn’t it been maintained by the private company leasing the site and
why was the Sports Centre not rebuilt after burning down? This is the same company that has been granted
planning permission at least 3 times in the last 15 years and failed to follow through on any proposal to date!
Now that the Golf Club has lost almost all of its members, will the golf course soon similarly be regarded as
“..of limited quality..” and therefore surplus open space available for yet more housing?
So what can you do now?

If you haven’t done so already, please sign the Petition AND please object on the
NTC Planning Portal

Object directly via North Tyneside Council planning portal here

Sign our petition here

Please support us in protecting vital green spaces within the borough