The original letter to Andy was titled 'Theft of Public Access and Rights of Way' and Mr Carr was technically correct when he said the riverside walk off Long Row was not a right of way. He conveniently overlooked the fact Council had adopted it, in or around 2010, and it was they who erected the railings that used to run the entire length from Comical Corner to the gate.
Dear Andy,
I picked up the fact that the developer of the disused Garland/UtilityWise had closed access to the riverside walk some time before the page, Re-Open public access to the River Tyne @ Market Dock South Shields was created, though to be honest I cannot tell you when it was. I am still in touch with people in Shields about UK Docks’ shed and news of corrupt practices travels very fast.
I can however tell you that I noticed that South Tyneside Council had been taking the rights of way from the citizens and giving them to developers for some years and two came to my attention because they deprived the people of access to the river Tyne by simply blocking the way:
- Landing at Alum Quay, in or about 2010;
- Readheads Landing in 2013;
The Council will be able to correct the details if they are wrong. I have copied this email to the Monitoring Officer to let her know the facts. As you will see the planners and their managers are adept at hiding their misdemeanours from her and to do that they corrupt the complaints procedure which ends in them having to repeat the same misinformation to the Ombudsman etc.
The point still remains that there is no longer any public access to either of the above, the first disappearing under the Nexus Office and the second into the Port of Tyne Estate. Please see the plans showing that the right of way has been moved from the one end of the Port of Tyne property to the other which I have attached. The Peter is Mr Cunningham the Principal Planning Officer of South Tyneside Council.
The plans that lead to the damming of the ‘Alum Slipway’ are unobtainable but the archives will show who was the Planning Officer who handled the plans for the Nexus Office and the person who granted them permission to block the slipway that lies under the Alum Ale House’ patio. The plans will also show that the Nexus Office is built a few meters out of alignment. Some of the Pub’s customers complained about it and about the loss of amenity at the time but planning office and/or building control ignored them.
When I went to live in South Shields in 1999 there was access to the river from both and now there is none from either and you can see that South Tyneside Council are quite keen to remove rights of way from the public and give them to property developers but they need aid from the planning officers to achieve this.
The path from the steps at Comical Corner to where it joins Long Row meets the ‘Gate’ was created when 14-23 were built and control of it appears to have been have handed to the developer on August 11th 2017 by Mr George Mansbridge, Head of Development Services, when he approved ST/0429/17/FUL.
There are three things to note about the plans submitted by Mario Minchella, Architect. The site plan is still available on that Planning Portal.
- the partially filled dock with its landscaping has taken been taken from the Council and given to the developer of the UtilityWise Centre as can be seen from the site plan from ST/0429/17/FUL;
The 1.8m gate was placed some time in late 2019 or early 2020 across the right of way, established more than ten years before, in front of Nos 14-23, Long Row i.e. 100m outside the permitted development. Therefore it has no planning permission and should be removed;- T
he fence to enclose the waste bins has became a fence to block access to the former Market Dock from Long Row. That fence does not surround a bin store and likewise the gate has no planning permission.
Enforcement should be asked why they are both still there.
If the plans did not include those three items then they must have been added later and the Planning Officer, Mr Gary Simmonette can confirm whether or not they were included on the plans given to Mr Mansbridge for approval. I would be glad to hear his response because when I challenged him about the height of UK Docks’ shed he avoided answering by using Customer Advocacy to give out misinformation on his behalf.
You can view this in real time because Mr Mansbridge had not granted permission for Key West Three Limited and their agent Mario Minchella Architects to build 31 flats, ST/0693/20/FUL over the land formally occupied by the England Coastal Path. The Case Officer was Helen Lynch and the first question I would ask of her is: Who is the planning officer in charge of assigning that portion of the England Coastal Path over to the developer Norman Fada.
We know the planner, Garry Simmonette, ST/0429/17/FUL. see page 2, had already given a stretch of it between the old Garland building and the river and it looks like footpath around the remnant of Market Dock has been given to the resident of No. 30 in a similar fashion by an unknown planner
More than three years ago Mr Mansbridge granted permission, ST/0201/18/FUL-26-April-2018, to the owner of Flat 30, Mr Mark Lawson, for his boat lift. The grant permitted him to remove the safety railings built by the Council for the protection of users of the England Coastal Path. His agent was was Michael Minchella Architects and the Case Officer was Christina Snowdon and in this case I would ask her: Who was the planning officer in charge of assigning the portion of the England Coastal Path round Market Dock to owner of 30 Long Row.
It is possible that both Helen Lynch and Christina Snowdon are not planning officers but it appears that either they or whoever presented the plans provided by Michael Minchella Architects for approval in either case were falling well short of the conduct that would be expected of public officials after the Nolan Principles were published more than quarter of a Century ago.
In a similar vein, Dave Carr, the Highways Manager from South Tyneside Council while showing the “Re-Open public access to the River Tyne @ Market Dock South Shields Campaigners” a map of the adopted parts of Long row declared that the section the Coastal Path was not a right of way.
I have attached a Cautionary Tale to illustrate the antithesis of the Seven Principles of Public Life.
Kind regards
Michael