Developer Gladman revives huge Hetton housing plan with 255 homes on farmland near North Road

Sunderland City Council’s planning department has received an application for agricultural land off North Road in the city’s Hetton ward.

The parcel of land sits on the edge of Hetton, to the north of Hetton Academy, with the site’s southern boundary running adjacent to Hazard Lane.

Applicant Gladman Developments Limited has applied for outline planning permission to establish the principle of housing on the site with “all matters reserved” until a later date, “except for means of access”.

The outline application is seeking permission for the “erection of up to 255 dwellings” along with public open space, landscaping, a sustainable drainage system and associated infrastructure.

Plans have been submitted with a number of supporting documents providing details of the scheme and future aspirations for the site.

An early design image shows a green buffer and green space to the western edge of the site and housing located in the central and eastern parts of the site, and final details would be agreed in a future ‘reserved matters’ application if outline plans are approved.

A planning and affordable housing statement notes the same developers were previously refused outline planning permission for housing on the site back in March, 2021.

The application was blocked at the time by Sunderland City Council as it was said to be “deficient in supporting information” on key issues, including archaeology, highway arrangements, ecology and biodiversity matters, such as potential impacts on the Hetton Bogs Local Nature Reserve.

Those behind the revised scheme maintained the site is “sustainably located and there are no known constraints to its delivery for residential development”.

Developers also said they had submitted a “suite of technical assessments and reports that address the previous technical reasons for refusal” and that the previous planning application “was determined in a materially different housing land supply context”.

It was noted that 15 per cent affordable housing would be provided across the development and that the housing estate would be “set within a comprehensive green infrastructure network comprising public open space, structural planting and landscaping, recreational spaces and routes, and formal and informal play provision”.

Those behind the scheme said the site was “sustainably located with a range of services and facilities within close proximity […] including educational institutions, healthcare facilities, employment opportunities, recreational facilities, and retail establishments”.

It was also noted that the site was within close proximity of “good road links” and bus stops and that the site was “not subject to any statutory ecological, heritage or landscape designations”.

The planning and affordable housing statement added: “The site is considered to be typical of the type of land which national planning policy envisages for meeting housing needs.

“It comprises land located in a sustainable location with a range of facilities and services within the site locale [and] is readily deliverable.”

Proposed access to the housing scheme is expected from “two locations along North Road, including a northern access and southern access” and that there would be a “spine road forming a tree-lined ‘primary street’ through the development”.

It was argued that the “significant extent of proposed structural landscaping will act to soften views of the new development (particularly to the west), creating a soft development and urban edge, and assimilating the development into the local landscape”.

The planning and affordable housing statement continues: “The considerable benefits of the proposal include the provision of affordable and market housing to assist in meeting the identified local need which the development plan is failing to fulfil, and to which the Government has emphasised as being of critical importance at a national level.

“This attracts very significant weight in favour of the proposals.

“The proposed development would also generate significant economic, social and environmental benefits, including, among others, employment during its construction and increased residential expenditure in the local economy once occupied, health and wellbeing benefits arising from the onsite green infrastructure, and net gains for biodiversity as a result of new habitat creation and enhancement.

“These benefits heavily outweigh any harms which include the loss of a minimal amount of hedgerow, a small area of BMV [best and most versatile) land and the change [of] use from an open green field.”

A decision on the planning application is expected following a council consultation exercise.

Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website lists a decision deadline of September 29, 2025.

For more information on the plan, or to track its progress, visit the council’s planning portal website and search reference: 25/01432/OUT