LED digital display screen approved for Sunniside Leisure complex in Sunderland

Proposals were submitted to Sunderland City Council’s planning department earlier this year to install the 9.6m x 4.8m smart media screen to the rear of the complex, facing out onto West Wear Street.

Planning reports noted the area is undergoing major change through the Riverside masterplan and the site would sit at the end of ‘St Mary’s Boulevard’, part of a district devoted to a mix of office, retail and leisure uses.

The screen has previously been located in Keel Square and is being moved as part of plans to make way for wider proposals in the city centre at Culture House and the new ‘Sunderland Pavilion’.

The application, submitted by city council chiefs, went before the latest meeting of the local authority’s planning and highways committee (on Monday, July 29) where it was unanimously approved by councillors.

This was in line with recommendations from planning officers, who ruled the proposed structure is “considered suitable for this city centre location”.

Their report added it “will not be overbearing and will not negatively impact on local amenity through the use of subtle, low-level lighting which can easily be controlled”.

Planning officers at the meeting noted it would be a “smart city screen” and would display general advertising, like others in the city, while no “adverse comments” had been submitted during consultation on the proposals.

The Sunniside Leisure building where the screen is to be located houses the Omniplex Cinema, which opened in May to bring cinema back to the city centre after the former Empire site, which previously ran from the same location, closed last year.