City Council confirms councillors have asked for Article 4 to be invoked

The Save the National Glass Centre (NGC) has said they’re “horrified” to hear the University of Sunderland are pressing ahead with plans to demolish the centre and have called for the City Council to use powers in a bid to prevent them from doing so.

Save the National Glass Centre protest group outside of the centre. | sn

placeholder image — Save the National Glass Centre protest group outside of the centre. | sn

On Wednesday, March 25, the city’s councillors backed a motion calling on the NGC owners, the University of Sunderland, to “immediately halt its planned closure and demolition” and for an “independent review into the NGC’s future viability carried out”.

However, last week, the university sought to press ahead with demolition plans by asking the City Council for a “screening opinion”.

Screening opinions are sought from local planning authorities to establish whether an environmental impact assessment (EIA) is necessary before a detailed planning application is submitted.

A letter submitted to council planners on behalf of the university states proposals are for “demolition only and does not include redevelopment, changes of land use, new built form, operational development, long-term activities or land transformation”.

Responding to latest development, Save the National Glass Centre chair Carolyn Basing said: “Why are our democratically elected representatives being ignored by the university? Why haven’t they done as asked, paused their demolition plans, and started negotiating with the council?

“Sunderland City Council agreed to ask the University to ‘immediately halt the planned closure and demolition of the NGC’ and ‘to work with the council’ to find a better solution. Instead the university have gone ahead with demolition plans.”

In December the university submitted a pre-application to the City Council for demolition of the centre and had already instructed consultants to carry out surveys.

The campaign group believe following the motion from councillors, the city council should have invoked Article 4 of the of the Town and Country Planning Order 2015, which Carolyn says would force the University to “apply for planning permission for demolition that would otherwise be allowed automatically”.

Carolyn said: “We know many councillors are working hard to establish what has happened to the Article 4 direction and if it has been issued.

“If the Article 4 direction has not been enacted - this is a serious matter, with potentially grave implications for all involved.”

Sunderland City Council confirmed following the motion, on March 26, that Sunderland Labour Group members had requested that council officers should make an Article 4 direction to “remove permitted developments in relation to demolition in respect of the NGC”.

However, a council spokesperson said this does not automatically result in Article 4 being invoked.

Sunderland City Council’s headquarters at City Hall. | LDRS

The spokesperson explained: “Council officers have advised any potential Article 4 direction must be based on robust evidence and this requires a detailed initial assessment and preparation stage to obtain and assess all relevant evidence to determine whether or not a potential direction can be justified.

“This is in full accordance with national planning guidance which requires any potential Article 4 direction to be supported by a full and detailed statement of reasons.

“This preliminary assessment work has commenced, in response to the above request, and is expected to take several weeks.

“Officers will provide an update to the leader and the portfolio holder in due course once this work is complete and regarding whether or not the grounds for the potential making of an Article 4 direction can be justified.”

Within the screening request letter to the council, university chiefs made the case that planning issues would “not result in significant environmental effects which would warrant classification of the proposal as an EIA development”.

It added there are “no ecological designations where integrity could be significantly affected by demolition”.

The screening opinion letter says “the NGC building is not listed, nor located within a conservation area” and adds: “Any temporary visual effects during demolition are not significant in EIA terms.”

A university spokesperson added: “The university is continuing to follow planning guidelines ahead of the closure and subsequent planned demolition of the National Glass Centre.”