Readheads Landing had gone before the England Coastal Path was developed but by then South Tyneside Council had refined the method of giving footpaths to owners of properties that were adjacent.

The Principal Planning Officer in charge of closing access to the river Tyne from Readheads Landing did it in 2013 and he appears to have got away with it, because access to waterways is very ancient and appears to be controlled by Parliament and not by the Local Council. However public river landings are not liked by Port of Tyne or South Tyneside Council because while having to maintain them etc. they do not profit from them.

Meanwhile there was still a need to maintain the navigation into Tyne Dock because of Tyne Slipway and Engineering Co. Ltd, which employed a number of skilled craftsman and that included those who maintain the Port of Tyne’s pilot boats and the Shields Ferries. The Port of Tyne wished to close Tyne Dock completely for the expansion of their woodchip import business so they needed to find a new home for the maintenance of their pilot boats.

By 2013 there were only two slipways left in use on the Tyne and they were the one in Tyne Dock and the one off River Drive in South Shields and both owned by the same family. At some point they had applied for permission to build a cover or enclosure over the slipway at the River Drive site and it was granted by the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation in 1996. It would not have been economically viable and although the foundations were laid in 2001 the shed was not built because the footings were for a bigger shed than the one for which they had permission.

It transpired that a taller shed and longer shed was required to accommodate the ferry and a solution to this problem was provided by South Tyneside Council who simply turned a blind eye to the fact that Tyne Slipway & Engineering Co Ltd built a far larger boat shed than was permitted so that the business could be moved from Commercial Road to River Drive. While the shed for which they had permission would have held a Port of Tyne pilot boat it would not have held the Shields Ferry.

By the time the local residents raised complaints about it being bigger than planned the boat repair company had re-badged itself as UK Docks and to hide the fact that the shed was nearly 3m taller than it should have been, they gave the Council some dodgy plans to support their fraudulent misrepresentation about the shed’s height – see pages 1 and 2 of Shed and Corruption Part 1.

Until UK Docks were able to lengthen their shed off River Drive the old shed off Commercial Road was mothballed:-

The footpath between Commercial Road and the former Landing on the left, no longer served its original purpose and ended up as part of the Port of Tyne estate. One could say that South Tyneside Council had given it to the Port of Tyne or more accurately, a Principal Planning Officer had given it to them.

Conclusion
Ancient and not so ancient parcels of land are given to property developers in this way. They do not own the paths but as soon as the Council approve the adjacent development the ownership of the lane, footpath or Right of Way, appears to be handed to the developer.