£150m pot could bring homes deadlock to end
NEW FUND TO IMPROVE JUNCTIONS WOULD HELP DEVELOPERS
A NEWLY-ANNOUNCED £150 million fund to improve road junctions could be key to breaking an impasse over thousands of new homes planned in Newcastle.
Council chiefs in the city revealed last week a series of major housing projects are stuck in limbo until money can be found for vital highway improvements.
However, a new funding pot announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond in Monday’s Budget could provide a welcome boost for civic centre bosses.
While full details are still to emerge of the £150 million pledge, the council says it expects to put in a bid to help fund junction improvements at Rotary Way, Stamfordham Road and Ponteland Road.
Those three busy junctions with the A1 are all subject to ‘Grampian’ conditions, a planning regulation which prevents or limits construction on new developments until necessary infrastructure upgrades are in place.
It currently means thousands of homes in the west of the city – including 1,200 on Cell A of the Great Park site – cannot be built.
A Newcastle City Council spokesman said: “We believe it is likely to be an application-based fund. We are waiting to hear more detail.
“In that case, we would put forward a bid for improvements planned to junctions at Rotary Way, Stamfordham Road and Ponteland Road to accelerate delivery of house building in the West of the city.”
Coun Arlene Ainsley, the authority’s cabinet member for transport, told an overview and scrutiny committee last week at least 20 junctions need improving before more than 3,000 houses planned for the west of the city can all be completed.
Council officers confirmed improvements for Rotary Way, Stamfordham Road and Ponteland Road are being designed but could only go ahead once the council had secured the necessary cash – for example, from government funding or section 106 payments from developers.
Coun Ainsley said in her annual report to the scrutiny panel: “The provision of new housing is vital to the economic growth of the city.
“We are in the process of delivering more than 3,000 houses in the west of the city, providing new homes and schools across seven locations, with more going through the planning process.
“The provision of these houses, along with development in surrounding authorities, will inevitably have an impact on existing transport infrastructure by creating an additional demand on the network, primarily on routes towards the city centre to access jobs and education opportunities.”
In 2017, the council did complete vital upgrades to lift a Grampian condition at the junction of Fawdon Lane and Kingston Park Road which would have stopped any further homes in development sites to the west of the A1 being occupied.