At Tuesday’s planning committee meeting Sunderland City Council (“SCC”) confirmed its earlier recommendation and refused planning consent for Town End Farm Partnership’s (“TEFP”) is Wear Point 55 scheme.
TEFP’s application is the only proposal to align with Nissan’s timeline in being able to deliver live requirements, secure jobs and investment at no cost to the public purse. It can also be delivered without Council involvement, therefore saving it £22m, plus additional debt. The decision to refuse will put over 1,300 jobs in jeopardy and see a Tier 1 supplier find an alternative site for its expansion plans, outside of Sunderland.
The supplier has met with both local authorities to discuss the timing of delivery of an appropriate scheme. Given SCC’s decision, it is more than likely they will walk away from this development and IAMP as they need to be on site and fully operational by mid-2018, which cannot be achieved without the Wear Point 55 scheme.
Moreover, a substantial proportion of the land within the IAMP masterplan is in private ownership. The small number of land holders have indicated that they are ready, willing and able to develop their land, without requiring local authority input.
Commenting on the Council’s decision, TEFP director Peter Razaq, said:
“We had hoped the members would listen to our arguments and overturn the recommendation. This is a hugely disappointing outcome, particularly given that we know we can deliver a scheme which does not involve public funding and has an occupier wanting to commit to the scheme.
“The recent Examination in Public of the IAMP Area Action Plan highlighted that numerous changes will need to be made, which will necessitate further consultation, thus further delaying its adoption and the approval of the Development Consent Order, without which the IAMP cannot proceed. This will be very disruptive to Nissan’s new car production timescales, which are driving the need for delivery sooner than the combined councils can achieve.
“In the week that the north east has lost a further 300 manufacturing jobs, the Council had the opportunity to bring many hundreds of jobs and tens of millions of pounds in private sector investment to the region, and to the people of Sunderland. And the Council said no.
“We will now consult with our legal team and decide how best to take the Wear Point 55 scheme forward.”
Alistair Watson, Partner and Head of Planning & Environment at lawyers Taylor Wessing added:
“Town End Farm Partnership has worked tirelessly with stakeholders over many months to deliver a scheme that will provide much needed financial investment and employment for the North East. The public has been led to believe that the joint authority approach is the only option for IAMP, when this proposal would be greatly more cost effective and substantially quicker to deliver.
“The IAMP AAP is fundamentally flawed and with the continued slippage, is now a long way from delivery. This in itself puts IAMP in jeopardy and coupled with the forthcoming General Election, could delay the process further, which in turn will result in key suppliers moving their business outside district with the loss of jobs and valuable income.”
