South Tyneside councillors have decided not to fight a developer’s appeal against a refused housing scheme over the threat of costs, and against the backdrop of concerns the council’s planning department could be placed in “special measures” by the Government.

South Tyneside Council’s Planning Committee, at a meeting earlier this week, discussed an ongoing appeal for part of Cleadon Lane Industrial Estate, where Avant Homes is proposing to build 202 new homes.

Developers have faced planning issues and delays since the proposals were first announced, along with significant public opposition to the new homes with concerns including increased traffic and air pollution, parking issues, harm to wildlife, sewage impacts, loss of employment land and more.

placeholder image — South Shields Town Hall | LDRS

The planning application was initially approved by South Tyneside Council’s Planning Committee back in February, 2023, by a majority vote, despite around 300 objections being received, but the scheme has faced issues since.

The same planning application was brought back before the Planning Committee in March, 2025, due to further planning issues concerning foul drainage and changes to local and national planning policy around housing land supply/delivery and Green Belt matters.

Despite council planning officers recommending the housing scheme for approval, the plans were refused at the time by a narrow majority of councillors over the impact of sewerage issues “significantly and demonstrably outweighing the benefits” of the scheme and impacting on both human health and ecology.

At the July, 2025, meeting of the council’s Planning Committee during an appeals update, councillors were told there had been an appeal for the Cleadon Lane Industrial Estate housing scheme and that it would be subject to a planning hearing.

This included an in-person meeting where a planning inspector appointed by the Secretary of State would have heard representations from interested parties, including the appellant and representatives for the council, followed by a written appeal decision report being published on the Planning Inspectorate’s website.

At the most recent meeting of South Tyneside Council’s Planning Committee on Monday (September 15, 2025), councillors agreed with a recommendation from council planning officers “not to defend the appeal against refusal of planning permission.”

This means the appeal hearing will no longer go ahead and that the planning inspector will instead decide the appeal via the “written representations procedure” before publishing a decision, and the council itself will not submit a “statement of case” as part of the appeal process.

Council planners, in a report presented to the committee, said the changes were proposed because of a recent appeal decision by a planning inspector to overturn the Planning Committee’s refusal of housing plans for the Whitburn Lodge site, and to award the appellant’s full costs against the council for “unreasonable behaviour”.

As both the Whitburn Lodge and Cleadon Lane Industrial Estate plans were refused for “very similar reasons”, council planners urged the Planning Committee to reconsider its position on the Cleadon Lane Industrial Estate plans to avoid another potential award of costs.

Council planners said there was a “significant likelihood that this current appeal [for Cleadon Lane Industrial Estate] would be allowed” and that not defending the appeal would “reduce the likelihood of the council being found to have acted unreasonably.”

It was also noted, in a separate report on “appeal performance”, that a number of recent lost appeals had tipped the council over a “threshold” that had put the local authority at “risk of designation” by Central Government, with the risk that South Tyneside Council’s planning authority could lose control over some of its local decision-making.

According to the Government’s website, which references “authorities in special measures”, the Secretary of State can “designate a local planning authority (LPA) where they consider it is not adequately performing its function in determining applications.”

The “proportion of decisions on applications that are subsequently overturned at appeal” is one key performance measure looked at to inform this process, a council report states.

Designation has not happened to South Tyneside Council, and the council aims to work with relevant parties to avoid the situation, explain its position and highlight other areas where the council is meeting performance expectations.

Any designation in future would mean developers could choose to send certain types of planning applications directly to the Government’s Planning Inspectorate (who act on behalf of the Secretary of State) for decision, instead of the council.

South Tyneside Council confirmed that the situation, and threat of formal designation linked to the council passing a threshold, was linked to appeals for three ‘major’ planning applications – namely development at the former Simonside Arms site, a battery energy storage system scheme in West Boldon and the Whitburn Lodge housing development.

Councillors were told that South Tyneside Council does not determine a large number of “major applications” so that whenever the council loses an appeal it has a “disproportionate impact”.

Council planners added that the loss of the appeal for Cleadon Lane Industrial Estate would “further worsen” the position to “18.18 per cent” above the 10 per cent threshold.

South Tyneside Council’s Planning Committee discussed the Cleadon Lane Industrial Estate appeal under the ‘chair’s urgent items’ section of the meeting and councillors in attendance voted unanimously not to defend the appeal.

Councillor Joan Hamilton said South Tyneside Council would “find it very difficult to find some form of objection that would stand”.

“As much as we disagree with the application we have to be sensible about it and after reading the report I don’t think there’s any way further that we can go and the only option would be to accept the application on the grounds of the implications that comes to the local authority,” she said.

Councillor Shirley Ford added: “As one of the people who proposed and seconded the refusal on both of the applications, I am very disappointed indeed with the appeal being allowed for Whitburn Lodge, I disagreed with quite a bit of what the inspector said.

“However, we are where we are and I can’t see that there is a strong enough case to continue to fight the appeal.

“As much as I think that in terms of justice that we ought to, I think the risks are so high that in light of everything, including the number of appeals […] again that is the current situation we’re hamstrung by by the national legislation.

“So very reluctantly and with a heavy heart I would have to support the officer recommendation.”

A spokesperson for South Tyneside Council, in a statement after the planning meeting, said: “The council’s Planning Committee operates as an independent quasi-judicial decision-making body.

“Its members consider each application on its individual merits, guided by detailed officer reports, national and local planning policy, specialist consultee advice, and public representations.

“While the loss of a recent planning appeal [Whitburn Lodge] means the council has exceeded the Government’s threshold on a single performance measure, we are taking a proactive approach to avoid any formal designation.

“This includes working with the Planning Advisory Service around peer review and further training.

“It is important to note that the decisions which have taken us over the threshold relate to three individual applications and where this represents a tiny proportion of the hundreds of applications we determine every year.”