Plans approved for 'public realm' improvements around Sunderland's Sheepfolds area

Plans have been approved to carry out public realm improvements along a key city centre route.

Proposals went before the latest meeting of Sunderland City Council’s planning and highways committee for land at Sheepfolds Industrial Estate.

The application site is made up of a series of six parcels of land along Easington Street and Easington Street North, to the south of the Stadium of Light.

The land is currently in various uses compatible with the industrial nature of the surrounding area including car parking, and general industrial.

However, the proposals submitted by city council chiefs sought to convert it into “public realm” space.

They added this would “improve the route” between the Stadium of Light to the north and the new pedestrian and cycle bridge over the river Wear, which is currently under construction, to the south.

Councillors on the planning and highways committee unanimously approved the proposals at their latest meeting (on Monday, April 8).

This was in line with recommendations from council planning officers who ruled the application “is likely to achieve positive improvements to the visual amenities of the area”.

A planning statement in support of the proposals noted the Sheepfolds Industrial Estate is identified in the Riverside Sunderland Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) as a site “envisaged to deliver approximately 450 new homes”.

It added: “The strategic illustrative masterplan within the SPD indicatively shows land parcels subject to this planning application as being along a route for ‘strategic cycle and pedestrian movement to wider area’.

“The development subject to this planning application is the first stage of realising these improvements.

“The proposed development also contributes to the wider aims of the Riverside Sunderland SPD by facilitating improved connectivity in the area of the Riverside Sunderland Masterplan. “

The planning statement added “due to the existing use and operation of some parcels of land, no design proposals have yet been created to be presented”.

It noted the purpose of the planning application “is to seek agreement that the land can be used for public realm purposes”.

A condition attached as part of the approval states the development will not take place until there has been “submitted to and approved in writing by the local planning authority a scheme of landscaping” and other works.

It comes after last week’s city council economic and prosperity scrutiny committee heard how the land will form part of the ‘Way of Light’ which will run alongside the new Stables hospitality development.

A planning application is expected to be submitted for more public realm improvements at the northern end of the Sheepfolds site in the near future.