Decision made on townhouses and flats plan for 'blot on the landscape' site near Mowbray Park

Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee, at a meeting this week, approved an application for a site at Egerton Street in the city’s Hendon ward.

The overgrown site sits on the junction with Toward Road, near an entrance to Mowbray Park and the Grade II-listed park lodge.

Plans from applicant Fielding Park Projects, submitted last year, aimed to revive the derelict Hendon site by providing six townhouses and 16 apartments with associated parking and landscaping.

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According to planning documents, the proposed townhouses would be built “fronting onto Toward Road” with each offering three bedrooms and undercroft parking.

Elsewhere, apartments would be based in a large block behind the King’s Castle Church with undercroft ground floor level parking and a mix of two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments.

Those behind the development added around 15 per cent of dwellings in the scheme would be affordable, split between ‘affordable rent’ and ‘intermediate tenure’.

After being put to the vote at a meeting on Monday, November 25, at City Hall, the plans won unanimous support from the Planning and Highways Committee.

Several councillors on the panel welcomed the planned regeneration of the overgrown and derelict site.

Councillor Martyn Herron said: “I’m very familiar with the site, I’ve walked that road many times in my life and grew up not very far away and I have always thought it’s a shame that somewhere with such a nice view of the park was empty and derelict.

“I think it’s great that it’s going to come back to life and that it’s going to be part of the plan to get people back into the city centre.

“I will be wholeheartedly supporting this and I look forward to seeing the bushes and fences come down and seeing the buildings go up.”

Councillor Michael Dixon added: “I was on the committee when this was discussed many many years ago and I would like to commend the officers for their patience.

“It has been a blot on the landscape for such a long time and like Cllr Herron, I would be very pleased to support it and look forward to the day when it is complete.”

Councillor Andrew Wood, while supporting the scheme, raised concerns about the development being sited on a “very busy road” and the ability for residents to “get in and out, especially on a match day”.

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“It tends to be a run for people to get in and out and when the city is having events on getting up Toward Road can be very difficult, it might be solved by changing the lights but I hope that has been a consideration and that something can be done about it,” he added.

A design and access statement from developers listed the history of the site, which once accommodated a saw pit and laundry building, and then warehouses and a motor works, before sitting vacant for almost 20 years.

Developers, in supporting planning documents, said proposed housing plans would transform the “unkempt” site for the better while making a “positive contribution” to existing housing stock in Hendon.

Landscaping linked to the site would include “enhanced scrub, shrub planting, native hedges and well-landscaped frontages” to help “soften” the visual impact of parking areas, planning documents state.

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Elsewhere, proposed new tree planting intends to “mitigate the loss of existing trees – which are proposed to be removed to enable development or due to pre-existing damage from historical fly tipping”.

Access to the development would be taken from one existing, but currently disused, vehicular access on Toward Road at the northern point of the site, and on-site parking provision would be provided.

A heritage statement submitted to council officials also outlined how the development would be designed to minimise impacts on nearby listed buildings and the Grade II-listed Mowbray Park.

This includes a “high-quality design, alongside sensitively selected materials to create a sympathetic yet contemporary addition to the setting of the listed assets”.

Planning approval is subject to the completion of a section 106 legal agreement, a standard part of the planning process which secures financial contributions from developers to help mitigate the impacts of new developments, including new homes.

In the case of the Hendon housing scheme, council planners hope to secure £61,754 towards primary school places, £12,257 towards habitat regulations assessment mitigation and £7,231 to provide and/or improve open space within the Hendon ward, along with other contributions.

This includes £15,488 towards off-site children’s play within Hendon, around £1,800 towards improvements to allotments in several city wards, and £18,000 to help the development deliver “biodiversity net gain”, as well as the development securing 15 per cent affordable housing (four of the 22 units).

Post-planning permission, the development needs to be brought forward within three years.

For more information on the planning application, visit Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website and search reference: 22/00931/FUL