Church’s plans for Greggs site rejected
COUNCIL BOSSES REJECTED BID FOR OLD BAKERY HQ
HOPES of redeveloping a derelict former Greggs base have been dealt another blow, after council bosses refused to let a church move onto the Gosforth factory site.
Last summer, major North East developer Adderstone Group saw Newcastle City Council knock back its plans to turn the old bakery headquarters into a small business hub – sparking a bitter war of words with the local authority.
Now a separate planning application that would have allowed the Tyneside Vineyard Church to occupy part of the old Christon Road factory has also been turned down due to an “unacceptable” lack of safe pedestrian routes to the site.
Adderstone CEO Ian Baggett has again accused the council of having “no vision” for the site and warned that it could now return to heavy industrial use.
Adderstone had initially wanted to build homes on the land before noise concerns put a stop to those ambitions, while the council’s concerns over insufficient parking meant that a contemporary dance company, a gym, and a wrestling gym were stopped from moving into the proposed ‘Baker’s Yard’ small business centre.
Mr Baggett said: “This was an application for a place of worship for Tyneside Vineyard Church, which bizarrely the Planning Department outsourced to Capita Plc.
“The highways engineers insisted on the congregation funding a new footpath and crossing at a cost of £59,250 without there being any justification in highway engineering terms.
“This is a sleepy cul-de-sac and on a working day an average of only 28 vehicles per hour entered the estate.
“On a Sunday morning when the Church would be at its busiest, there is virtually no traffic.
“Prior to the application for a Church, we had tried to introduce brownfield housing, a gym, wrestling gym, ballet production studio and micro-brewery to t h i s outdated industrial estate.
“Estates such as this are transitioning into a more varied range of uses all over the country. It is such a shame that Newcastle City Council has no vision of its own for this corner of Gosforth other than presumably to see it slide back into 24/7 heavy industrial uses that are incompatible with surrounding housing and schools.”
The growing Tyneside Vineyard Christian church currently has congregations meeting at Gosforth Civic Theatre and in Marley Hill Community Centre, but had hoped that moving to the former bakery would allow them to grow further.
Senior pastor David Bass added: “I had explained to the Council that we operate from premises that are next to far busier and more dangerous roads and that we could not afford to pay for new footpaths and crossings in a freehold estate which is, after all, owned by the council.
“I wrote two letters to the planning department and I did not receive a reply to either. In both we offered to talk further with them but this offer was not taken up. Instead we were disappointed to receive the refusal notice, without any further communication, only days before Christmas.
“We had all been praying and hoping that the council would work with ourselves and Adderstone Group to create a fantastic space that would be an asset to the local community, but it was not to be. We have been looking for a facility for many years now and this would have been perfect.
“We hope to appeal the council’s decision with support from Adderstone Group.”
A council spokesman said: “We recently considered an application to use a vacant building on the Gosforth Industrial estate as a church. This included use of the building by a variety of groups including mother and toddlers, young adults and families.
“The council is keen to see such buildings being brought back into use but in this case we were concerned about introducing the general public and young children into a working industrial estate without adequate pedestrian safety measures such as footpaths and crossing points.
“We therefore did not feel that we could support the application as submitted and it was refused.”