A Decision taken to inform neighbours in Greens Place and Harbour View on receipt of this concession because the Planning Manager of South Tyneside Council cannot any longer reasonably defend UK Docks claim that the shelter is not 3m taller than planned. The claim that the drawing 8296/14 is not to scale can be shown to be an opinion and not a fact especially when backed up with the authorised drawing 8296/2 and the coherent interpretation of 8296/1A.

A meeting was called at the SSSC on 3rd Mar 2014 to discuss how to respond to the last paragraph of his email 13th Feb:

I have gone through your email in some detail and hope I have identified and answered your outstanding questions; I can assure you there has been no attempt to evade any of the issues raised. The only thing I can add is that if you feel the Council should be taking some action that it has not done already, then please let me know what that should be.

It was decided to raise a Petition and for me to write to the Planning Office to explain themselves.

Petition Raised.

This was presented at the Town Hall for the attention of Mr Swales the Chief Executive with over 200 signatures, a month later, on April 3rd 2014. We learnt at the presentation that the planning application for the expansion of the Port of Tyne Biomass Facility was going before the Planning Committee on Monday 7th April. This expansion is the reason for the displaced business of UK Docks and may explain why South Tyneside Council has allowed the cover to be completed in spite of not having planning permission. The Port of Tyne is a major employer in the area and UK Docks have a monopoly on the repair of Port of Tyne Pilot Boats. The Port of Tyne cannot function without Pilot Boats.

We have had no acknowledgement that the Petition was even passed to the CEO. All we have is a receipt-book stub signed by some office junior of the Town Hall.

We do know that it must have been passed to the Head of Development Services as he sent out a letter in response to our Petition.

The petition raised about 300 signatures in the end.

Email to Planning Manager

From: Mick Dawson
To: Gordon Atkinson.
CC: Residents of Greens Place and Harbour View with note “Please forward as required:”
Subject: RE: Slipway Development, River Drive
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2014 11:09:15

Dear Mr Atkinson,

With this e-mail I have agreed to act as spokesperson for the local Riverside Residents.
A meeting was held with members of the local community and I can now answer your question as to ‘what kind of action we would like the Council to take’. Thank you also for confirming that the Slipway Shed is not built to the approved 1996 plans.
The immediate response from residents was to request the slipway construction be removed. However the universally agreed request of Council, is that there is immediate cessation of work on the Slipway Shed until such time as appropriate community consultation with the relevant council departments can be arranged.
It has been brought to the notice of Residents that major work is planned for the remaining part of the site which includes two further and possibly larger sheds and a new slipway. We understand the nature of the work to be undertaken on completion of the planned development will constitute heavy engineering.
You must understand that there is serious concern among the local community over the impact of the current structure and future development of this site.
We look forward to your early response.

yours sincerely
Michael Dawson

this was acknowledged Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2014 11:59:49 :

Dear Mr Dawson
Thank you for your email.  Now I have this the Council will be able to provide a  response.  At this stage I am not sure who that will be from.

Regards
Gordon Atkinson

Nothing about the work continuing but at least the Manager of the Planning Office now agrees, five and a half months after it was started, that the shelter is not built to an authorised plan.

The Head of Development Services does not quite agree – To Reversion