When Garlands applied to South Tyneside Council for permission to build their Call Center they anticipated a workforce of about 800 and permission was granted for two office buildings and a large overspill car park:-

Garlands is delighted to announce a major business expansion, with the creation of a new contact centre in South Shields, South Tyneside in North East England. The centre will comprise two new office buildings totalling 47000 sq. ft. within a two acre site. Construction of the new eight hundred seat centre will be carried out by Mandale Commercial Ltd. and work will start immediately. The centre is expected to open in February 2008. Over a thousand people could eventually work at the site.

Garlands went into administration in May 2010 and the Centre was shut down before they even put the second office in to use. The site appeared to have been cursed because UtilityWise used the main office building for a while but they too went into administration in 2014.

The car park only ever had an occasional visitor for many years and then the bricks that were laid to make it started to disappear.

When the ‘Call Center’ was converted into housing it was all fenced off in what appeared to have been a land grab by the developer while he carried out the conversion

Even the Agents for Keywest No. Three Ltd, Mario Minchella Architects had not claimed it by October 2020. The barrier round the Long Row/Wapping St side of the car park is clearly shown and one had to step round the end of it to get to the footpath which is not clearly shown on the plan. As you can see the grass edge and the footpath have been merged into one.

By the time the plans were submitted to the Committee on August the 31st 2021 the agent had redrawn the plans so that the public footpath that used to be at the river’s edge had completely disappeared.

Plans to close off access to it were submitted by the Agent, Mario Minchella Architects 30th June 2021 and the north end closure is shown here where the external wall is extended to meet the new building.

At the other end, Keywest Three plan to close of access to the former footpath which will become a ‘residential amenity area’ by the use of a security gate for maintenance access only.

These plans were put forward by Helen Lynch and approved by Peter Mennell in August 2021 and they appear to be treading along a path devised by the Principal Planning Officer, Peter Cunningham in 2013 and refined by Planning Officer, Gary Simmonette and the Head of Development Services some seven years later.

Amble

I discovered at a Planning Meeting in Amble that the footpath round the flats overlooking Amble Marina could not be discussed because it came under ‘Rights of Way’ and the disturbing thing about this was that a site plan which had been drawn by no other than Mario Minchella Architects did not include the part of the footpath running alongside the Marina.

An earlier site plan had showed the footpath running as far as the lamp post shown in the picture but it no longer seems to be available. One can only assume it is because the Council did not wish to explain the disappearance of the footpath in front of the blocks of flats but not that of the footpath leading up to it.

I made an enquiry about the obstruction of the footpath with the Planning Enforcement Officer, Robert Wilson made his excuse and closed my enquiry.

30, Long Row South Shields

Similarly the footpath running past Mark Turnbull’s flat facing onto the Tyne was written out of history at or soon after he acquired the dock that had been landscaped by the Council some years before. It had been a pleasant seating area for walkers for some years before it was fenced off.