Developers of Washington housing scheme warned they are in last chance saloon as legal wrangle drags on

Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee, at a meeting this week, again discussed an application for land west of Moorway and south of Havannah Road near the A182 Washington Highway.

Plans were first approved by councillors back in October, 2022, for a ‘T-shaped’ three-storey building providing 84 extra care apartments and the erection of 13 bungalows at the site, along with ancillary support services.

The planning application was submitted by applicant Esh Construction Limited and Gladglider Projects Limited, and the scheme was expected to be operated by a registered social landlord and aimed at older people, with on-site care and support available.

Applicants had hoped to start work on the site in summer, 2023, subject to a legal agreement being completed, however no building works have taken place, with the site remaining overgrown and partially covered by woodland.

A report presented to council decision-makers earlier this year (2025) said the previous legal agreement aimed to secure some affordable housing (from the bungalow element of the scheme), along with the submission and approval of a detailed landscaping plan and a condition for “localised highway improvements.”

At a meeting on March 3, 2025, councillors on Sunderland’s Planning and Highways Committee were asked to approve the application again on the condition that the legal agreement was completed by a deadline, along with the submission of updated ecology reports.

Councillors agreed an initial deadline for the legal agreement to be “satisfactorily completed” by April 25, 2025, with the threat of the housing scheme being refused if this deadline was not met.

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However, the stalled planning application was tabled again at a Planning and Highways Committee on March 31, 2025, with councillors agreeing to extend this deadline to June 6, 2025.

Councillors were told that the proposed deadline extension was linked to “quite a few landowners” who needed to agree to the legal agreement and that Sunderland City Council planners were still comfortable to recommend the housing plans for approval.

A report published ahead of a decision-making Planning and Highways Committee on Monday (June 9, 2025) revealed developers would not meet this deadline for the completion of the legal agreement and a request was made for it to be extended to July 25, 2025.

At the City Hall meeting this week, council planning officers said work on the legal agreement was “progressing well” and that “final drafting is close to conclusion” but that more time was needed to complete it and to allow “relevant parties” to sign it.

Councillor Michael Dixon questioned the local authority’s previous approach to setting deadlines, which had repeatedly not been met, and asked whether deadline dates should have been “spread out a little bit more.”

Council planners, responding, said the council tries to set “ambitious targets” and that the dates set “strike a balance between giving sufficient time but also making sure that everyone is focused”, with the council also learning from each case.

Councillors were told that the new deadline for the Washington development would give “sufficient time” for the legal agreement to be completed and that the “penalty” of any further delays would include the option of the planning application being refused.

Members of the Planning and Highways Committee, while approving another time extension, indicated it was the developer’s last chance.

Councillor Graeme Miller noted the wider delays linked to the planning application and said there was “no point having an application sitting in the system taking up officer time for more than three years”.

Cllr Miller said that if the issue was not resolved by the end of July, 2025, so the council could make a decision on the housing plans, there should be a “push to refuse”.

“I’m sure we are doing that through the office but I think we probably need to strengthen that message to them,” he added.

Councillor Iain Scott noted the application had been “bounced in and out of this committee enough times now” and suggested the latest deadline and time extension was the “last chance saloon” for developers.

“I have commented on this application before and do want to reiterate and make it unequivocally clear to the developers that we do absolutely want extra care housing development and bungalows developed in the city of Sunderland,” he added.

“It’s an absolute necessity at the moment considering the housing shortages that we have and the acute needs for those it will be provided for.

“I just hope that when the clock strikes noon outside the last chance saloon in July that we have got an agreement in place.”

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Legal agreements are a standard process used by council planning departments to secure financial contributions from developers, with cash earmarked to improve infrastructure and local facilities, as well as reducing impacts of new homes on local nature sites.

The amended recommendation for the Washington development included a legal agreement listing “the provision of affordable housing (up to 100 per cent of the proposed bungalows), a detailed landscape plan for the land to the south (including maintenance schedule) and a mechanism for the maintenance thereafter (potentially a financial contribution)”.

The legal agreement also included the “submission of updated ecology reports, to the satisfaction of officers” and planning conditions, and if points are not “satisfactorily completed” by the new deadline the scheme would be refused, planning documents state.

A similar approach of issuing deadlines for legal agreements has been used for other delayed developments on Wearside to help move progress, including housing plans for The Cavalier pub site in Silksworth which led to a positive outcome.

However, the approach can also see plans blocked, with recent plans for bedsits on Chester Road refused by council planners after the applicant failed to make a financial contribution towards the council’s “coastal mitigation strategy” by a set deadline.

The extra care and bungalow plans in Washington were initially given the stamp of approval at a meeting of Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee on October 31, 2022.

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This included apartments set amongst communal landscaped gardens and an on-site social hub featuring a bistro-style café and a well-being and hair salon, with the aim of creating a sense of community and combating social isolation.

Despite being approved by councillors back in October, 2022, the outstanding legal agreement has delayed planning permission being granted by Sunderland City Council.

As the plan was initially ‘validated’ by the local authority in January, 2022, the application has been with the council for around three-and-a-half years.

An update on the planning application is expected in coming months.

For more information on the plan, or to track its progress, visit Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website and search reference: 21/02898/FU4