The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
Questions on brownfield plan delivery
Garden multi-storey car park, with further facilities being set up at the Dean Street and Grainger Town car parks.
A new park and ride facility will open tomorrow, April 2, at the Metrocentre’s staff and coach park off the A114 Riverside Way.
Motorists travelling across the region are advised to avoid the city centre area if they do not need to be there and instead use other routes to cross the Tyne, such as the A1 to the west of the city and the Tyne Tunnel to the east.
Will I be able to walk or cycle over the bridge?
Yes, one footway will be kept open at all times throughout the Tyne Bridge’s restoration.
Why has it taken so long for this work to start?
The increasingly poor state of the Tyne Bridge has been obvious for some time, but it has taken years to finally reach this point.
With local councils unable to afford the cost of the refurbishment works themselves, they originally bid to the Department for Transport for funding in 2019 – since when the region’s leaders have campaigned vocally for the Government to back the project.
While ministers announced in June 2022 the funding bid had been approved, that was followed by a long wait for the money to be delivered and arguments between local authorities and the Government over who was to blame for the delay.
Newcastle and Gateshead councils’ final business case for the project was eventually signed off in February 2024 – more than four years after the first bid was lodged. What work is being done and why is it going to last four years?
The last significant restoration works on the Tyne Bridge were completed in 2001, so there are a large number of repairs required now.
While the need for a fresh coat of paint has been clear to anyone who has seen the Grade II* listed crossing for the last several years, detailed inspections carried out in 2022 revealed the rusted bridge was in a worse state than had been expected.
In total, there are around 1,000 separate repairs that engineers are planning to carry out on the bridge – including a full repaint, steelwork, concrete, and masonry repairs, waterproofing, road resurfacing, parapet protection, drainage improvements, and bridge joint replacement.
Will the bridge be painted green again?
Yes, the paint colour used will be British Standard BS14C39 or ‘Greenwood,’ which council chiefs say is “a colour as close to the original as possible”. Green is the Tyne Bridge’s traditional colour scheme, though it was painted blue and grey for a time in the 1960s.
Will the bridge be covered by scaffolding for four years?
The bridge will never be completely covered up during the four-year renovation project. Council bosses say that, because of weight limits on the bridge, scaffolding will be installed on different sections of it in 20 different phases.
How much will it cost and who is paying for it?
The cost of the works in the Tyne Bridge itself is an estimated £32 million, though it is part of a larger £41.4 million project that also includes improvements on part of the Central Motorway.
The Government has now signed off on £35.2 million of funding to cover the bulk of the works and it was expected that the remainder would be covered by Newcastle and Gateshead councils.
However, following the scrapping of HS2’S northern leg last October, the Government pledged to cover the full cost of the scheme as part of Rishi Sunak’s Network North programme. That extra £6 million is yet to be delivered.
What about the kittiwakes?
The Tyne Bridge is home to more than 1,200 pairs of nesting kittiwakes – the furthest inland colony of the sea birds in the world.
Engineers waited until the kittiwakes had departed before starting to erect scaffolding last September and have installed “kittiwake hotel” nesting ledges on the scaffold towers for when they return for their breeding season.
Will this affect the route of the Great North Run?
The image of thousands of runners crossing the Tyne Bridge during the Great North Run is one of the most famous sights in the North East.
The annual half-marathon will not be rerouted during the bridge’s restoration, with councils saying there should be “minimal impact” on runners.
Transport chiefs have promised to “carefully” plan the works around the Great North Run to make sure there is enough space for runners to cross it safely.
OFFICIALS at the North of Tyne Combined Authority have faced questions over the delivery of housing on brownfield sites.
The NTCA was awarded £31.8m in Government funding to “unlock” sites for at least 2,100 new homes across the North of Tyne region. A further £17.4m was secured as part of the North East Devolution Deal to expand the programme into the rest of the LA7 south of the Tyne. The total funding is £49.2 million with a target of 3,200 homes.
The combined authority worked with local authorities to create a pipeline of new homes, with schemes including Newbiggin Hall in Newcastle, Bellingham Mart in Northumberland and the Esplanade in North Tyneside.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the NTCA’S scrutiny committee, the plan was welcomed by the authority’s cabinet member for housing Dame Norma Redfearn, who said: “This is something that has been needed for so long.”
So far, a total of 2,420 homes have either been built or have received planning permission, however, questions were raised by councillors about the number delivered up to this point.
Liberal Democrat councillor Greg Stone, who represents the Manor Park ward on Newcastle City Council, said: “We have got a brownfield housing fund – are we satisfied with the level of delivery we’ve got so far? Do we think we’re on track?”dame Redfearn replied: “I think we’ve done remarkably well with all the challenges. What we have been doing has taught us a great deal.”