Delay over decision to build homes on Sunderland's former Southwick Primary School site

In recent years, Sunderland City Council have been progressing plans for the former Southwick Primary School site at Northern Way.

The school closed its doors for good in 2009 with pupils moving to a new state of the art facility at Shakespeare Street.

Last year, city leaders agreed to sell the Southwick site with social landlord Bernicia Homes taking on the project.

When complete, the estate would offer a mixture of two-to-four bedroom homes and four bungalows, all at affordable rent.

At a meeting on Tuesday March 3, the council’s area Development Control Sub-Committee were asked to defer the plans so further considerations could be examined.

The move was linked to a “viability appraisal” which looks at whether the value generated from the development is more than the cost of developing the site.

The document is also directly linked to a section 106 agreement, which agrees the cash sum developers are asked to pay to councils to make schemes acceptable.

Developers have agreed to pay funds towards affordable housing on the Southwick site and around £26,000, or £703 per dwelling, towards habitat regulation assessments (HRA).

However, a council report states Bernicia Homes is unlikely to provide funds towards education due to “viability issues” .

Although council planners have said cash for affordable homes and HRAs pass tests to “make the development acceptable” the developer’s viability assessment is still under scrutiny.

A report prepared for councillors stated an independent review was expected to be complete in time for the meeting.

But planning officers said they still had questions about the scheme and asked for the housing plans to be deferred to “interrogate the matter” further.

Sub-committee chair, Coun Julia Jackson, said: “It’s disappointing as officers have put a lot of work in but as the planning officer has said, it has to be done.

“I hope it comes back as soon as possible.”