River Tyne North Bank

The project will benefit from £9m of investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government, over two Swans projects.

The Strategic Development Framework Plan (SDFP) for the regeneration of a 660-hectare area on the River Tyne North Bank (RTNB) has been approved by Cabinet and adopted as interim planning guidance.

The RTNB project aims to breathe new life into the former Swan Hunter shipyard site, enhance the cultural and heritage provision, provide access to the river for residents and visitors and substantially regenerate Wallsend Town Centre.

Extensive Community and stakeholder consultation took place in developing this plan and the results of this consultation can be found below.

The strategic value of the River Tyne North Bank employment area for advanced manufacturing, sub-sea and offshore renewable engineering has recently been recognised by the North Eastern Local Enterprise Partnership (NELEP) through inclusion of 3 sites totalling more than 70 hectares within the North Eastern Enterprise Zone, which took effect from 1 April 2012. Two of these sites are in North Tyneside (Port of Tyne North Estate and the former Swan Hunter site). The Council has implemented a Local Development Order (LDO) in November 2012, for the Swan Hunter site which will allow building without planning permission within specified parameters, to facilitate the early development of the site. See link to LDO below and link to NELEP site opposite. The LDO for the Port of Tyne site is still being developed with the Port.

In addition, a clear statement of the national importance of the River Tyne North Bank by Central Government and the NELEP is the identification of the area as one of 5 Centres for Offshore Renewable Engineering (CORE) across the UK.

CORE are partnerships between Central and Local Government and Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs) that ensure businesses looking to invest in manufacturing for the offshore renewables industry receive the most comprehensive support possible.

View an interactive tool that provides detailed information regarding this vast area including 360 degree panoramic photographs and river depth information.

The study area runs from Walker Riverside (the Offshore Technology Park) eastwards as far as Smith's Dock (just before the Shields Ferry), and includes the communities of Wallsend, Willington Quay and East Howdon.

The former Swan Hunter shipyard was acquired in 2009 by the Council, with the assistance of One North East (ONE). This was in line with the River Tyne North Bank regeneration strategy and was to ensure it was retained in employment use and specifically for marine related manufacturing and engineering uses. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has now taken over the joint venture role from ONE. This site will benefit from business rate relief as part of the Enterprise Zone, however businesses must be in occupation of premises no later than 31st March 2015 in order to receive the incentive of up to five years business rates relief.

The Council has been working to ready the site for development however, there are a number of infrastructure requirements that the Council has applied for funding for. To date the Council has been successful in securing over £18m in grant funding for initial infrastructure improvements ready for the new buildings and subsequent job creation at Swans including new access roads, replacement of the bridge on Benton Way, new signals along Hadrian Road/Buddle Street which will be linked to free up the route (i.e. when on green they are all green to allow swift movement), a toucan crossing on Buddle Street to replace the zebra crossing to ensure links with the junction traffic signals are not interrupted, provision of water, drainage and power to the site, improvements to the quay edge and dredging of the river to allow lager vessels to berth. These works have already started on site and will be complete at the beginning of 2015. The funding sources are the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and the NELEP Growing Places Fund.

North Tyneside Council has appointed Kier Property through a European Procurement Exercise as it's developer partner for Swans. They will be responsible for marketing the Swans site and delivering Advanced Manufacturing units for businesses locating to the Swans site. Businesses moving onto Swans before April 2018 will benefit from up to five years business rates relief (subject to State Aid Deminimus levels).

In October 2008 the Council in partnership with Newcastle City Council, One North East and the Homes and Communities Agency appointed a multi-disciplinary consultancy team, led by GVA Grimley, to develop a Strategic Framework Plan for the regeneration of a 660-hectare area on the North Bank of the River Tyne.

The study area runs from Walker Riverside (the Offshore Technology Park) eastwards as far as Smith's Dock (just before the Shields Ferry), and includes the communities of Wallsend, Willington Quay and East Howdon. The area is currently characterised by a number of declining and disjointed land-uses including pockets of strategic employment uses adjacent to large areas of redundant and semi-redundant land and small areas of isolated residential neighbourhoods.

A study into the market demand for North Bank sites identified significant opportunities to attract businesses from the renewable energy and subsea technology (oil and gas) sectors.

The aim of the Strategic Framework Plan is to put a strategy in place to guide regeneration activity over the next 15-20 years and develop North Bank as a distinctive place which capitalises upon the area's strategic location along the River Tyne employment corridor with significant opportunities for business growth. The purpose of the Plan is to promote investor confidence, attract funding and ensure that economic and social development ensues to improve the societal well-being and financial strength of this area.

Objectives include ensuring optimum uses for the area, to create a vibrant and vital district for living, working and leisure, optimising the environmental, social and economic sustainability of the redevelopment and ensuring that the regeneration, particularly of the town centre, will be an exemplar for good design and sustainable development.

Access and transport has been a key element of the study and the Framework Plan includes for the provision of excellent accessibility and linkages between the riverside sites, the town centre and adjacent neighbourhoods, so as to maximise the opportunities for transport and movement by means other than the car.

The Strategic Framework Plan will be supported by a Masterplan for the Wallsend Town Centre and Willington Quay areas that will identify a number of key sites for regeneration including the former Swan Hunter Shipyard and opportunities for improving the Heritage and Tourism offer at Segedunum.

Throughout the study period, the partners sought to ensure that the local community and key stakeholders were positively engaged in the process so that the final plan was one which local people could take ownership of and have confidence in. Community consultation, which began in December 2008, identified a strong desire from the residential community to gain better access to the river and to find ways to 'bring the river back into life again'. The plan proposes ways to maximise the potential for reconnecting communities with the river frontage and to generate job-creating riverside industrial activity and increased river traffic.

The vision is to revitalise the North Bank of the Tyne to a thriving area of growth with education at its core, supporting the sustainability of local communities and Wallsend town centre.

Based on the consultant's detailed analysis, a number of key objectives for the economic strategy have been identified.

These are as follows:

• create a 'sustainable and resilient' economy for the North Bank
• River Tyne North Bank to become a regional employment and productivity driver
• benefit local communities by increasing levels of economic activity and skills
• maximise the opportunity represented by the scale of development potential

Paul Graves
Regeneration Project Manager
Telephone: (0191) 643 6013
Mobile: 07976 957875
Email: paul.graves@northtyneside.gov.uk