Decision date on redevelopment plans for Sunderland pub The Cavalier in Silksworth

Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee is due to rule on plans for The Cavalier public house in Silksworth.

This includes proposals to demolish the pub buildings and to construct 14 houses and a three-storey building providing five apartments.

In addition, the plans would include associated car parking, landscaping and a new pedestrian access, as well as existing vehicle access arrangements at the site being “retained and upgraded”.

The site, which includes a public house with a large beer garden area and parking off Silksworth Lane, was previously granted outline planning permission for the demolition of the pub to build detached dwellings.

However, a design and access statement submitted on behalf of applicant CJ Taverns said the site had been marketed for sale with “little interest due to the limited numbers of large executive dwellings.”

The statement added that the revised scheme would provide “family homes more suitably sized for the site and location along with five apartments.”

During a council consultation on the plans, around three public objections were received with concerns ranging from loss of trees, privacy impacts and the proposed design, to impacts on wildlife.

An objection was also received from the Campaign for Real Ale noting the loss of the pub as a ‘community facility’ and describing its garden as one of the “best pub gardens” in Sunderland.

Councillors on the Planning and Highways Committee are due to discuss the plans at a meeting at City Hall next week.

Council planning officers, in a report prepared ahead of the meeting, have recommended the scheme for approval subject to conditions.

This includes the completion of a Section 106 agreement which is used to secure funds from developers to mitigate the impacts of developments, as well as requesting financial contributions towards community improvements.

According to the council committee report, the legal agreement would secure the provision of three affordable units on site and financial contributions towards allotments, equipped play space and open space.

Other financial contributions include around £15,000 to boost biodiversity and funds to reduce impacts on protected coastal nature areas.

Council planning officers, in a planning report, also drafted a table outlining the benefits and negatives of the proposed development.

Benefits set out by planning officers included the provision of housing, short-term jobs during construction and the provision of several affordable apartments.

However negatives ranged from the felling of 15 protected trees and the loss of the pub, to the separation distances between some dwellings not meeting design guidance.

Council planning officers concluded that the “moderate economic and social benefit of providing housing outweighs the minor and moderate environmental and social harm”.

Full details of the proposals are expected to be outlined at a decision-making council meeting on Monday, June 19, at City Hall.

The final decision on the development rests with councillors on the Planning and Highways Committee, who will meet from 5.30pm.