newcastlecentric

If you’ve tried to buy a house in Saltwell or Bensham over the past few years, you may have been intimidated by protest posters in windows and talk of banks refusing to give mortgages on properties.

The reason? A large swathe of Gateshead has been subjected to Pathfinder, a Government funded project to regenerate urban areas. While the project has seen improvements made to property in Durham Road and other areas of Gateshead, a question mark has hung over Saltwell and Bensham, with several streets earmarked for demolition.

Now, a legal challenge by SAVE Britain’s Heritage has halted the demolition of over 150 terraced houses, after the council admitted it had not made an environmental impact assessment prior to approving demolition.

Demolition began in 2006 and has since proceeded sporadically in the face of strong local opposition. To date, one row of housing has been demolished, and another partly destroyed, despite the council having no plans for redeveloping the site.

A spokesperson for SAVE said:

‘What is happening in Gateshead amounts to a national scandal. These are good houses in a pleasant part of Gateshead, served by a thriving high street and an award-winning public park. This not an area of housing market failure.

Another concern with the Pathfinder project is it was conceived during the housing boom several years ago, when houses couldn’t be built fast enough. Now, on the brink of recession, it’s questionable whether the local market would support several hundred new homes.

Part of the Pathfinder remit was the construction of more than 250 homes on the former Gateshead College site; despite the college moving to its new Quayside premises in January, the Durham Road site remains vacant and unsold.

Photo by J0nny_t on Flickr. Some rights reserved

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