The Ambler, December 2021

Transparency needed over closure of walkway

Posted on 09th December 2021 | in Community , Northumberland County Council

Many people have commented on the closure of the walkway along the quayside and wondered when it might reopen. Loose handrails were cited as the reason for the closure, but over the weeks and months no work has been forthcoming. We wondered why.

Coble Quay walkway was paid for with public money, but who is responsible for fixing it?

Since the summer, The Ambler has been asking many people many questions, not all of whom were effusive in their answers. At one stage we wondered if we should give up. Except, no, and here’s why.

In 2014, Northumberland County Council (NCC) and partners were awarded £1.8million by the government’s Coastal Communities Fund to construct the Harbour Village. One of the key features of the development proposal, was the construction of a ‘public footpath’ or walkway along the quayside.

Northumberland County Council’s original development plan described the walkway as a ‘new quayside public footpath’

South Tyneside Council are giving part of the England Coastal Path (ECP) away to a favoured customer, by barring access and getting caught doing it. We do not know if the the worker employed to put the notice on the gate barring access to the ECP was a Council worker, see header, but clearly he had been given authority to place it.

Although the ECP is not a right of way, the legal term appears to be a permissive path, the process of giving them away began when the Principal Planning Officer in charge of closing access to the river Tyne from Readheads Landing away in 2013 what was a right of way to the owner of the land on either side. He got away with it, because Rights of Way are controlled by Parliament and not by the Local Council and by this means quite a long strip of land was simply given away to the Port of Tyne*.

Ancient and not so ancient parcels of land are given to property developers in this way. They do not own these but as soon as the Council approve any plans that wrongfully include the rights of way or public footpaths, and that includes footpaths with permissive access, ownership passes into private hands.

Protest appears to be a waste of time because the activities of the agents who requisition plans, the planning officers and enforcement officers, overlooking the switch to private ownership  and lastly their managers giving approval for the plans because the Council, can simply get away with it, by claiming that Rights of Way are not a planning issue.

This site is a convenient place to store correspondence and the header for it was borrowed from Re-Open public access to the River Tyne @ Market Dock South Shields. It shows a notice being fixed to the barrier across the English Coastal Path.

This site is a convenient place to store information gleaned from various scources and the header for it was borrowed from Re-Open public access to the River Tyne @ Market Dock South Shields. It shows a notice being fixed a permanently locked barrier.

* the Port of Tyne said they would provide a viewing station on the banks of the Tyne downstream but it never happened.