PoT Tug being Spruced up for Fireworks
UK Docks were allowed to build a shelter on their slipway on the banks of the Tyne in South Shields without planning permission by South Tyneside Council (STC). In spite of protests from the very beginning that it was bigger than planned, the Council did nothing, apart from a temporary stoppage in the last months of 2013, to stop the completion of the shed.
The stoppage happened because the Council discovered that the protestors were correct when they said it was about 3m taller than permitted and they must have been aware of the breach of the 2nd condition because they forced UK Docks to stop work on the structure on or before September 23rd 2013 (note – there was a site inspection in October to confirm that work had stopped and then no work carried out on site until shortly after a critical meeting of 25th November).
Meanwhile the Principal Planning Officer, Mr P Cunningham, continued to hide the fact that the approved plans indicated that enclosure (shed) was nearly 3m taller than permitted on the 20th December 2013 by writing:
I have measured this on site and have copied the 1996 plans across to you twice already and I have explained during our meeting that the base and height of the structure are compliant…this is the end of the matter as far as I am concerned.
They were not compliant with any approved drawing, being nearly 3m taller than any of them showed. The shed nearly a meter wider as well and the Council were then stuck with hiding the malfeasance of Mr Cunningham and allowing work on the shed to continue, or admitting that we were correct when we claimed that the shed was in fact taller than planned.
Please go to Home – cont’d for more a detailed explanation of how STC maintained the fraud that the shed was the permitted height.
The same two officers who withheld the fact that the shed was nearly 3m taller than planned from the information given to the committee for the meeting held on the 1st February 2016 went on to accept and approve drawings provided by Mario Minchella Architects to redirect the England Coastal Path, south from Comical Corner, a few years later. Please see the pages of the Harbour View dedicated to the England Coastal Path.
For a more detailed view of the boat shed built on the bank of the Tyne in South Shields without planning permission, please go to https://theharbourview.co.uk/ukdocks/
The disappearance of the Turks Head and the Beacon is briefly described in The Harbour View/Greens Place.