Seafront site for sore eyes!

The future of Seaburn’s seafront is, as you might expect, a concern for everyone in the area.

As far as developments go, the area is rife for investment and, on the face of it, we should be grateful plans are regularly landing on the table.

There’s nothing worse than available land standing idle ... just ask those who oversaw the Vaux site for more years than we care to mention.

But when it comes to development on any site, you really have only one shot.

Get it right and it’s boom time. Get it wrong, and a whole world of misery can land on your doorstep.

To get a flavour of the strength of opinion in the Seaburn community, plans for 64 homes off South Bents avenue have already attracted more than 400 objections.

What the public has to say on any matter affecting their surroundings should carry more weight than any other interested parties, from developers to council planners.

Which is why it is refreshing to see our local politicians appearing to sing from the same hymnsheet on the matter.

A motion agreeing to listen to residents views over the future of leisure and housing on Sunderland’s seafront has been passed.

Tories, Lib-Dems and Labour were among those parties to back the move and show a shared determination to get the balance between housing and leisure right.

Tory leader Coun Robert Oliver rightly described the seafront as an area that should be the “jewel in the crown for the city of Sunderland.”

To do that, it is imperative that the views of the Seaburn public are not only listened to, but are acted upon. Of that, we can all agree.