Detailed plans for 85-home Northumberland housing development in Stannington set for approval

A decision is due on Bellway Homes’ reserved matters application for a housing scheme at Netherton Park, to the east of the A1 between Stannington and Stannington Station Road, which already has outline permission.

The latest bid is opposed by Stannington Parish Council, Netherton Park Residents’ Association and 30 neighbours, but it is recommended for approval at the Monday, February 8, meeting of the Castle Morpeth Local Area Council.

The site was formerly used for children’s residential accommodation and the proposed properties would wrap around Kyloe House secure unit – which remains operational – to the north and the east.

The units referred to as Kestrel and Kingfisher were closed and the associated administrative buildings became vacant following a review in July 2012. The application states that the buildings ‘are now in a poor state of repair having suffered break-ins and metal theft’.

The housing mix would consist of six two-bedroom homes, 23 three-bedroom houses, 52 four-bedroom properties and four five-bedroom dwellings, and the site would include a multi-use games area (MUGA).

A three-metre-high acoustic bund with a three-metre fence on top is required along the majority of the eastern boundary of the site because of the noise from the East Coast Main Line.

There would be no affordable housing, but given the site’s history, the section 106 legal agreement has secured a contribution of 30% of the value of the proceeds towards buying and leasing residential properties for children’s homes in the county.

The key concerns of the parish council and residents’ association relate to traffic and road safety, and the impact on the character of the area, not least through the loss of trees.

However, the council’s highways team has not objected, subject to conditions, and the planning officer concludes that ‘overall it is not considered that this would be significantly harmful to local character having regard to the varied character of the Netherton Park estate, the retention of significant amounts of existing trees/hedgerows and proposed replacement planting’.

The Netherton Park trustees submitted the original outline bid back in March 2014 before it was backed by Northumberland County Council’s then north area planning committee in February 2015.

This was subject to the section 106 legal agreement being agreed and noise issues being resolved and the application went back before councillors in November that year, although the final planning permission was not granted until July 2017.

The masterplan and access road arrangements were then changed, which resulted in a variation to the outline application being lodged and approved under delegated powers by planning officers in 2019.

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