1996 July The UK Docks received planning approval for a new Slipway Shed in its property next to Harbour View Estate. No attempt appeared to have been made to carry out any work related to the planning approval until:

2013 Mid Sept. Big trucks arrived at UK Docks with large girders.

2013 Mid Sept. Residents rang South Shields planning to determine what was going on at UK Docks. Planning said they were not aware of any work being carried out. A few days later residents were informed that original planning approval 1996 (that most existing residents were not aware of ) for a Slipway Shed was still valid. Residents were informed some work had been done on the footings before the original planning approval ran out (usually five years after the original approval) and because of that no further approval was required.

A few weeks later residents were informed that UK Docks had a meeting with the Council in Aug 2013 to discuss continuing with the proposed Shed. The minutes of this meeting do not appear to have been made public.

On learning of the proposed Shed residents objected and demanded more information that was slow on arriving and lacked detail.

In the meantime the construction of the Shed went ahead at great speed and calls for it to stop were ignored.

Attempts to obtain detailed information about the original planning approval were delayed with excuses such as, they could not be found as they had been dealt with by the South Shields Development Corporation but they may be in the archive which would involve time to search.

2013 Late Sept A diagram of the proposed Shed was made available to the residents. It showed what appeared to be a flat roof structure with certain external dimensions.

Paul Hepburn

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