Crown Works Studios work forces Sunderland City Council to move winter salt depot

Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee, at a meeting this week, approved plans for a site described as the ‘Beach Street Council Depot’ in the Deptford area.

The site was once used as a waste recycling centre before services moved to a new state-of-the-art Household Waste and Recycling Centre at Pallion Industrial Estate in 2022.

New plans submitted on behalf of the council in recent weeks sought permission to change the use of the vacated Beach Street site to a salt store to help the local authority keep roads and footpaths safe during the winter period.

Sunderland City Council’s primary salt store is in Houghton which “manages most of the winter operations for the whole of the city”, according to a transport statement submitted to council planners.

It was noted that an “additional salt store is required to provide strategic resilience in the east of the city, should snow fall prevent vehicle movements through Houghton cut”.

The current salt store for the east of the city, at Shorts Quay, is “located within an industrial unit on the site of the proposed Crown Works Studios development that obtained planning permission in March, 2024“, planning documents state.

However, the industrial unit needs to be vacated due to enabling and development works currently under way at the site, with Beach Street earmarked as the new location for the salt store.

Sunderland City Council only applied for a temporary change of use for the Beach Street depot, for a “maximum of five years”, to “accommodate” the salt store, along with “the erection of 2.4m high palisade fencing and gates.”

Submitted plans also described the development as a “proposed salt heap” and confirmed it would be around 10.4 metres in height.

The council’s planning department recommended the planning application for approval at a meeting of the Planning and Highways Committee on Monday (June 30), where the plans were eventually approved by the panel.

A report to councillors noted the development would “provide storage for a proposed salt heap and the site will be put to a purpose which supports the operations of an existing employment use”.

Councillors were told the move requires planning permission because of the change of planning use proposed and the size of the site.

The committee report added: “Overall the proposal is not considered to give rise to any amenity with regards to the visual impacts given that it would be less intrusive than that of a derelict household waste recycling facility.

“It is therefore not considered to conflict with policy BH1 of the CSDP [local plan] which requires new development to be of a high-quality design and positive improvement, development should create places which have a clear function, character and identity based upon a robust understanding of local context, constraints, and distinctiveness.”

A transport statement from the council noted the replacement salt storage facility “needs to be provided at an alternative site and to provide a suitable replacement salt store in time for the 2025/26 salt ordering and winter maintenance operations”.

It added that the council will “introduce a series of traffic regulations in the Deptford area in 2025 [to] prevent any indiscriminate parking that may cause access issues to the salt store” and will “ensure parking is regulated and enforced effectively”.

Proposed traffic regulations cover parts of Beach Street, Farringdon Row and Hanover Place and mainly include new double yellow lines and a mix of ‘pay by phone’ and ‘limited waiting’ parking bays, with full details set out in council planning documents.

The transport statement adds: “To stock the initial salt heap, it is anticipated that there will be a maximum of 175 deliveries of salt during late summer months with a maximum total delivery volume of 7,000T of salt.

“These operations would be carried out during daytime hours over a two-week period.

“Following the initial delivery, when there is a requirement to use the east of the city operations during heavier snow fall, there is likely to be potential bursts of activity for 2-3 hours through the daytime and the same again through the evenings.

“Winter maintenance operations are provided by the council from October 1 through to March 31 each year.

“As a currently unoccupied site, no current traffic survey [data] is available, however it should be noted that transport operations, servicing and vehicle movements for the former public use of the site were significantly greater than that anticipated for the proposed salt store use.”

For more information on the plan and council decision, visit Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website and search reference: 25/01022/LP3