Ovingham Bridge and an electric railway

I was obviously mulling over Colin Tapping, the Hexham Courant (see https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=805252949586887&id=244877205624467) and Ovingham Bridge in my sleep. I awoke with this perfectly formed. So Mr Tapping acknowledges Prudhoe is larger than Hexham but his best advice is learn to live without Ovingham Bridge. Many of you have (his evidence?). In this expression of fraternal concern, there is this point to be made. Next time Hexham bridge falls, Mr Tapping will not be in the least bit put out if we suggest that Hexham learns to live without it. After all, they have the bypass bridge just to the west and Corbridge to the east. No difference at all to Prudhoe, Bywell and Wylam. Hexham could happily and without agitation do without Hexham bridge. This line of thought is clearly so preposterous that it leaves you wondering why has Mr Tapping written as he has? To cynically ensure his letter columns fill for weeks?

Mr Tapping's views however tap into something else deeply worrying about the north east in the 21st century. Our region seems entirely unable to pull together. When Prudhoe and Hexham can argue amongst themselves, when Ashington can stuff Morpeth, when Prudhoe's own are unable to agree without hesitation that a new road to the A69 is essential, when Sunderland and Newcastle cannot work together (instance Sunderland museums being pulled from the joint service), when people cannot agree who should chair the LEP, etc, etc, the North West and Yorkshire run circles around the North East. Middlesbrough and Tees Valley don't even want to be part of the North East. The reason they run circles around us is because they have learnt to come together and share. Greater Manchester (as in Tyne and Wear) has effectively been reconstituted and each council (large and small just like the EU) takes it in turns to chair. Is Nick Forbes in Newcastle willing to come up with that?

Problems both in Prudhoe and in the region may seem worringly complex and intractable. However I think they come down to simple roots. Will you trust others and will you share? If you won't, look forward to a lot more of the same and the best folk packing bags. On the horizon is another instance. Mr Tapping threw into the mix the electrification of the Tyne Valley line as a reason for Prudhoe not getting a new connection to the A69. I have news for him, according to Network Rail electrifying our railway is on a par with the Barton on Humber branch. Something not remotely on the radar. However doubtless he could retort "well at least the coming Arriva rail franchise, promises us new trains for the Pacers to go". News there as well, if you know which meetings and briefings to go to , which newsgroups to look at, it is now ABSOLUTELY CLEAR Arriva are not bringing new trains to the North East. The many new trains they are buying are going to Yorkshire and Lancashire. What you will see passing through Prudhoe station is something called a Class 158. A nice train in itself but here is the rub, already 26 years old and as I will attach a photo below, a type of train Tyne Valley communters were used to riding in the early 1990s. Until we can get our act together, this is what we are worth, other people's cast offs. Even so this will be a 90mph train running on a 65mph railway so the real challenge is as Mr Tapping suggests the infrastructure, but there is so much to do to it before wiring becomes good sense.

The winter of 1990/91 at Prudhoe and a Class 158 four car rake handles the commuter traffic. This is the new train Arriva will deliver to us in a year or so.

Prudhoe Hospital redevelopment planning application

My blog over the years has chronicled the poor quality of planning in Prudhoe (although I will remark that this year past has shown a marked effort to address one of the regular concerns in respect of drainage). After a long time in gestation, the Prudhoe Hospital planning application from the developer Gentoo and the owner The Homes and Communities Agency (remember the c word) is now made. It is here.

Paul Revill the previous Baptist minister of Stocksfield and himself a Prudhoe resident asked me "What do think Robert?". And remarked that flatting Prudhoe Hall might be a lost opportunity. This is what I said on Facebook.

"At one level Prudhoe Hall is the least of this. I do value Prudhoe Hall and also the Walled Garden (for which the plan if it happens is sensible, some sheltered homes outside to generate revenue for a publicly accessible garden operation). BUT what is needed here is a community, there are many excellent buildings here (like the pavilion) and some of the blocks which could be retained, adapted and re-used, to create along with many new houses variety and opportunity with continuity. The developer simply does not have the vision, the knowledge, the drive or the desire to do any more than knock down and build lots of houses with apparently no thought about where people work and how they get there? How does this impact on Blaydon roundabout? Why is it not matched to new road links across the Tyne to the A69 and south to the Derwent Valley (hardly very difficult that)? What is being provided as a social hub for the self employed with public Wifi (notably something Prudhoe's newest public building does not have)? Will there be a pub or a church? Many people, senior leaders, have said Prudhoe must not repeat Castlefields. In what respect does this development differ? Correlate what the developer proposes to http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/prudhoe-historic-characterisation/prudhoehistoriccharacterisation.pdf . However after many years I have realised that Prudhoe's own ability with but two county councillors to cease being done unto and to take control of itself is very limited. The HCA could have offered the whole site to Prudhoe through the Community Partnership and the Town Council and said "now determine, your own destiny"."

On transport provision worm your way into this. It includes the offer of a minibus service for the development. How long will that last? Think 111. It is not a link to Newcastle or anywhere else. The "positive" step of offering such for 392+12+80 (Humbles Wood) so 484 homes tells me a lot. That anticipating people do anything other than drive hardly figures. It is a palliative sop.

 

One of the buildings slated for demolition. Why not flatted?

Greater Manchester

In 1986 my first curatorial job was abolished by Mrs Thatcher. It was with West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council. I profoundly disagreed with her policy then. Much of my life since then has been spent under the shadow of how to progress the Northern cities. Today the governing coalition is cementing a major step in writing that wrong. All credit to Greater Manchester for achieving this. The problem for me is that Prudhoe borders Tyne & Wear. TW was always too small and too full of Newcastle and Sunderland warring. Steps are being taken to rise above this, there is a North East Combined Authority sort of getting into gear. But it does not include Tees Valley and I will suggest until it does it will never have the clout it needs. I will also suggest a city like Glasgow would do well to learn from Manchester rather than hope that a shift to hard left Nationalist politics will resurrect its fortune. http://www.thebusinessdesk.com/northwest/news/687391-massive-moment-as-greater-manchester-agrees-devolution-deal.html?news_section=4148#

Retail woes

A walk around Hexham yesterday and a read of the Courant today revealed how bads things are getting retail wise. I see two enormous factors in play. The on going recession and the accompanying reluctance of people to have a day out from Newcastle. The closure of the bike shop and of Thornton's were new to me. When Tynedale Park was Robbs that acted as a real draw to bring people to the town. Who will drive to Tesco in Hexham to become ensared in a long traffic jam. Silly ole me. The message for Prudhoe is that the developement as currently planned will have exactly the same effect. It will kill the Front Street and ennsare the town in a traffic jam. Only a top class development with innovation on the hillside would really bring prosperity. As the candidates come acalling don't be afraid to raise this. I will not consider voting for anyone as a Prudhoe politician unless they accept the necessity of reviewing the Duke's plan.  I am only aware of one candidate saying this just now.

Principles for developing a new town centre in Prudhoe

About two years ago I first launched off into the subject of Prudhoe Town Centre floating the concept of The Hanging Gardens of Prudhoe. Perhaps that was open to mis-interpretation? A great deal has happened since then and a great deal had already happened by October 2010. Yet in November 2012 and despite the award of planning permission on June 20th 2012 to the Duke of Northumberland for a new town centre there is little imminent sense of anything about to happen, Two factors in the present hiatus are perhaps at work. One might be Spencer Court at Newburn. The other is not a might be but a certainty. All along through the present scheme, the people of Prudhoe believed Sainsbury was on board as the operator of the planned supermarket. But during late October 2012 (earlier in some people's minds) Sainsbury made it very clear from CEO level that they were having nothing to do with the Prudhoe scheme and had no present ambition to open a supermarket here.

What happens next? Potentially nothing which for those properties neighbouring and thereby blighted is a dismal thought. The Duke has his planning permission (or does he because "Section 106" is not yet signed off?). He can sell it on, he can find another supermarket (would any other chain going into the detail of this complex and controversial project make a different call to Sainsbury?). He could seek to vary the consent and perhaps just build houses. Or he could say the way this has gone on these last few years has not produced any winners, how else could things be made to work?

What follows is blue sky thinking on the assumption that either the landowner wishes to work with the community to deliver aspirations welcomed by both groups or the landowner has been persuaded to sell the land to a body like the Prudhoe Community Partnership and there is then the promise of a community led redevelopment.

What sort of principles in designing a new town centre in 2012 could be adopted?

Suggested watchwords: 21st century, respect for one's neighbours, work with not against the hillside, a new supermarket is desirable, provision for artizan/small town scale operations which draw the folk to the community, the new Legion building, something cutting edge for creatives/self employed/internet cafe/studio style business, build on the solid gardening traditions of the site, the Alnwick Garden and the Prudhoe Gardeners Association,  ensuring that the non-car owning public have ready access to the core of any new development (that is not so with what is on offer see here), ensuring a brand name or strap line exists from early in the project to give it life and suggest it is a destination, using the tools of 21st century social media to develop the concept and to maintain a FAQ during its implementation (e.g. Second Life visuals).

Who would lead? If the Prudhoe Community Partnerhip took a lead, they would need to retain "honest broker/mentor skills" from development experts. A range of such agencies local and national exist. In no particular order I suggest some:

http://www.theglasshouse.org.uk/ Glasshouse

http://www.livingneighborhoods.org/ht-0/bln-exp.htm Building Living Neighbourhoods

http://www.northernarchitecture.com/home.html Northern Archictecture

http://www.xsitearchitecture.co.uk/ Xsite architecture and Tim Bailey

http://bardonmill-villagehall.co.uk/ Bardon Mill's 21st century partially underground village hall

http://www.designbykiosk.co.uk/about.aspx Christoph Oschatz and Design by Kiosk in Bensham

https://www.facebook.com/ArchDaily ArchDaily

Information about the Prudhoe Town Centre

Two thoughts just now on Prudhoe's new centre. Matthew 7:12 "So in everything, do unto others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." . Had that been a guiding principle in the design of the proposed centre, much of the pain could have been avoided by the designers asking themselves would I wish to live in the neighbouring properties once this work was finished? To see the result of not doing so, explore this link http://committees.northumberland.gov.uk/aksnorthumberland/images/att9996.pdf

. And by playing with the 999x sequence up and down you can find all or a huge amount of correspondence in the public domain about the project. Very instructive. Thanks Clive Elsdon for some tuition here.

Is the Prudhoe Town Centre redevelopment abandoned and if so Why?

A month ago the Prudhoe Town Centre redevelopment scheme looked all set to receive its planning permission after years of twists and turns. About a day beforehand, the meeting was cancelled. Since then something of a catch all about legal advice and the applicant being required to submit more information has sufficed by way of explanation. I have asked councillors, the chairman of the Prudhoe Community Partnership who is also the vicar, for explanations. Nothing in any detail is forthcoming. The Hexham Courant has hardly been able to expand the knowledge base. This week its publishes two letters from opposing sides of the spectrum: Peter Gallagher and Tony Williamson. Sometimes people wonder why I don't get more involved in the actual political structures. Read those letters for an answer. It is mudslinging and misunderstanding on both sides and that is not something I wish to take part in. Nonetheless this inability to communicate between the various parties may go far in explaining why this process has become so frustrating over many years. The process goes back some years before the original application for the current scheme was submitted in 2007. Now in bullet point form, I intend to list out some of the reasons why I suspect if the current scheme is dead, that is so. Tony Williamson's letter (pro) seemed to suggest it is dead although on what evidence I do not know. Perhaps the results of the Sainsbury consultation this September were so negative as to disincentivise them?

• At the outset the scheme should have had a vision and a name. One that encapsulated the excitement of what was on offer. I have several times in this blog referred to The Hanging Gardens of Prudhoe. This was not a random choice and only incidentally was meant to allude to a fate for the protagonists. The Hanging Gardens concept is one of antiquity and refers to the hillside. The space for the development is the last open space left within Prudhoe's centre. It sits on one of Prudhoe's greatest assets: its hillside. The development owner is famed for the Alnwick Garden. It is basic common sense that the two be combined and that above everything else encompassing the shops and the houses, there would be a Garden experience of such notability that it made Prudhoe a destination. A multi storey car park or a Supermarket facade could have become an exercise in hydroponics. People with memories in Prudhoe realise that the Co-Op development and its car park destroyed a very pleasant park.
• As such the scheme needed to be 21st century in nature. I often asked those for the scheme to outline for me its 21st century elements. They never have because it is'nt. It is a scheme from the 1980s. And it never really took cognisance of its hillside location. The hillside became a problem not an asset. And that is how we ended up with Berlin Walls, sound barriers and massive blocks of development overlooking houses.
• An element of a 21st century scheme would have been efficient communication to sell the project. A regularly maintained website with an updated FAQ responsive to questions could have worked wonders. The site is surrounded by houses and the proposed development literally looks down on many. Pleasing the neighbours should always have been paramount to remove objections. IT could have helped this, instead the developers seemed to stir up a hornet's nest amongst their intended neighbours.
• The information provision was always poor. Dumping huge arrays of files in the library and calling that consultation was anything but. Again a website could have had a 3d walkthrough, which, had the plan had inherent excitement, could have convinced the doubters. It simply did not seem that Northumberland Estates ever wanted to enthuse the community. It looked as if they took them for granted. It certainly did when as this blog shows the Estate has spent months claiming on its own website to have planning permission for the project when it had nothing of the sort. A public consulation inviting responses took place in August/September of this year and not a word about the results has yet been forthcoming.
• Four elements of detail (at least) excited consistent adverse comment (other commentators may suggest more). The big three for me were the multi storey car park, the restrictive covenants on the shops and the new junction on station bank. Each of these three it seemed to me was unwelcome and unworkable. Probably the one highest on my agenda and those I spoke to, were the restrictive covenants. It looked like swopping one supermarket monopoly for another. The knowledge that at the end of all the upheaval, a whole genre of shops would be excluded like a butchers, wholefood (Holland and Barratt), a Thorntons, a fishmonger was amazing. Just what sort of town centre was this going to be for the largest town in Tynedale?
• The fourth element really became evident this summer and perhaps it was this that pulled the meeting on the 19th October? The situation with the drains and the sewers. I have heard so many incompatible versions of this. One argument says that the development was actually going to solve the problem because it was to have a separate drainage system to the river. If so that was not made clear in Fairhurst's summary handed out in October 2010. Another argument says that the Estate maintained there was no springwater on the site when clearly there is. What appears to have driven the point home was the event of 6th August when it became manifestly clear that Prudhoe's current drainage system was not working. The simple point to me is that Prudhoe operates with a 600' hydraulic head and that unless development is exactingly married to that fact, some dramatic problems will arise.
• It is evident that the matter of leadership and trust comes into this. Whether in respect of the springwater or their claim to already have planning permission, the Estate lost the community's confidence. The Duke never once came the 3o miles to engage with the population. The whole affair of the Judicial Review articulated this. The proposal was rejected once by a judge and although it could be argued this was on a technicality, commentators like the Hexham Courant certainly interpreted this as a rebuff to the Estate's plan which had already then attracted thousands of objectors. I certainly thought that when the plans were represented at a consultation in St Mary's Parish Hall in October 2010, one would see a radically changed scheme taking account of the many concerns which by then were well known. I remember being amazed by what I saw and I remember the inescapable mood of those in that room. They were angry. More than anything else, this was the moment I decided to start quietly taking soundings amongst people as I met them. Gradually over several months, I became astonished at what I learnt. Very successful business people were explaining to me exactly why the proposed scheme would not work. Other people were expressing amazement that successful businesses like the existing snooker hall were going to be sacrificed with no arrangements for their replacement. I was very surprised to discover that this did not seem to concern the Prudhoe Community Partnership.
• A very sad consequence of all of this as the letters in the Courant have consistently shown is that the landowner's scheme has entirely divided the community. It is not difficult to find heated arguments developing over the affair. Neighbour can quite literally fall out with neighbour. Since the landowner in this instance is not some absent commercial entity but the feudal landlord, I judge that to be somewhat scandalous.
• As Tony Williamson's letter says, the land will be developed. It cannot be left. If indeed the Northumberland Estates/Sainsbury scheme is dead, how might I suggest going forward? The asset of the land and its view is so valuable to the community that the Prudhoe Community Partnership should raise funds to buy the land and find a new development partner. One who would really work with this community to develop a scheme which would enthuse the community. Perhaps the result will not be a Sainsbury? It might be a Morrisons or an Aldi. I don't mind. I never objected to a new supermarket. The Co-Op as I repeatedly say to myself when forced into it, has not made any friends by its pricing or stocking policy (Consett offers a vastly wider array of supermarkets and other food outlets all competitively priced). So by all means lets have a new supermarket, some more housing, shops that allow for a butchers, but in all that let us make sure that the development treats the hillside in such an exciting manner that it will become the positive talk for 50 miles around.

Prudhoe's Drainage

I went to the Prudhoe Civic and Community Forum meeting last night about the flooding. The most forceful presence came from a newly appointed West Area Highways manager Richard Hayes. It seems he is very ready to understand that Prudhoe has deep seated drainage problems that unless they are addressed will continue to cause a lot of distress to affected properties.

What I now say is a little bit of reading in: but I conclude his advice would likely to be no development planning permission until a wider study into Prudhoe's geology and drainage is concluded. And that one should not be surprised if the solution is an interceptor drain of some size running along the spring line. That is roughly from the west end of the bypass, along the back of Prudhoe Castle School, the bottom of the Kepwell, between Broomhouse Lane and the new development to the area of the Cockshaw Dene where it would discharge into natural drainage. This scheme would intercept surface and land water discharges.

Once it was in place, the capacity would be there to proceed with the town development.

The objectors were going on about granite! I had to interject. There is no granite anywhere near Prudhoe. I had the geology map with me to prove it. Apparently as one told me later, Fairhurst's had suggested this. If so this shows just how out of touch and hopeless the Fairhurst's input is. The geology of Prudhoe whilst complex is perfectly clear. The rocks are coal measures: coal, limestone, sandstones, shales, fireclays. Most are porous but the clays are not and will play a role in springlines. On top of the rocks there is boulder clay and sands and gravels. Plenty of the latter along the hillside clearly shown on the map. Where they meet clay, you get springs and where the underlying rock outcrops the same also happens.

It seems to me that previous developers have been allowed to get away with murder - especially as it now appears along Castle Road. It is very important that Northumberland Estates are not allowed to repeat this. They have had ample opportunity to do their work properly. They seem to have failed to do this. The objectors say that NE deny there are any springs on the development site. They have photographic evidence to prove otherwise.

To my mind the NE planning application should not be taken further until the drainage study is concluded and implemented. There is every reason a planning committee could want to say this to the applicant. There is no way that the applicant could object as they have manifestly failed to undertake the studies they should have done.

The event of 6th August was evidently very distressing and it has been followed up with smaller scale repeats since then including October 18th on Station Bank. However if these unfortunate events have injected some realism into the development plans in Prudhoe, something will have moved forward.

Tales from our National Parks

Are any of you following the BBC series Tales from our National Parks? The theme combining heritage, landscape and planning would always interest me and with the other related planning thread of Prudhoe Town Centre I was bound to watch. Up there in my personal interest stakes with the Nick Crane series on towns earlier in 2011. What do I get from these programmes? That planners are in a strange world of their own. Last night the issue was the Tyndrum Gold Mine. It was absolutely clear an entire community on its ankers wanted the project and had waited quite long enough. Planning permission had previously been granted by an earlier authority. So what did a new National Park authority do with a chief executive from Greenpeace? Erect hoops every inch of the way. The whole issue really came down to the tailings dam, dealing with the waste. Common sense might have said say to the applicant, we support you but unless your application deals with the tailings in a way we can approve, don't bother. Oh no, the whole expense of a frustrated application was indulged in. A 12/10 vote down and another year spent on a re-application. All this effort could have been saved with some straight talking at the start. In reality life is not that simple. Perhaps the Park Authority never really wanted to say yes and had hoped that after one rejection, the applicant would go away. But they did not, instead reading between the lines, I suspect some influential supporters lent on the Park Authority (telling scene of the Park Convener giving the Chief Exec some guidance). Thankfully anyway Tyndrum will get its gold mine now. Sadly Honister does not look likely to get its zip wire. The Lakes say they want to be Britain's adventure capital. Yet they don't want a zip wire at Honister exactly where a cableway from the slate quarry worked for decades. The park authority has removed sports boats from one of the most obvious locations in Britain: Windermere, a huge space well able to accomodate speedboats in designated zones. I have my serious doubts that those running National Parks have any real ability to support business. They view their landscapes as precious artforms when in reality they are nothing of the sort. All the great National Parks had their wealth built on industry and this their current guardians are in denial over. And back at the ranch in Prudhoe, the story is rather different. Here there is a beautiful valley with no protection. There is a public who have made their views pretty clear: that any development should fit the landscape and not engender monopoly. And although the jury is still out (because a key meeting got pulled) I am not convinced the community's opinion really counts for much. That is the common thread: why don't planners listen to community opinion. And will the Prudhoe community have to take the type of measure the folk of Tyndrum did to get heard?

Also in today's news another Northumberland planning story whereby a 230 year old pub bites the dust for yet another Supermarket in Morpeth? What is it with those folk? Morpeth was a lovely town now being totally given over to car parks and supermarkets. There are at least three developments already in existence.

The Prudhoe Town Centre Meeting 5th September 2009

From my Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001912940850

Robert Forsythe

‎"But Mr Barnes told the meeting at Prudhoe High School: “It isn’t possible to have a new town centre, if that’s what Prudhoe wants, without some people being affected.”

Read More http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2011/09/06/we-ll-be-encased-in-a-concrete-wall-61634-29369219/#ixzz1X9WNu1A1"

‘We’ll be encased in a concrete wall’ - Today's News - News - JournalLive

www.journallive.co.uk

PLANS to redevelop the centre of a Northumberland town were last night slammed as “a disgrace” by angry residents.

· · Share · 6 minutes ago

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    Robert Forsythe If Mr Barnes listened to other architects and read my blog or Facebook he might understand that you could have a town centre redevelopment much more in harmony with both the 21st century and the hillside at Prudhoe than the one Northumberland Estates propose. His take it or leave it attitude, his cannot make an ommelete without breaking a few eggs approach is at the root of why so many people in Prudhoe find Northumberland Estate's treatment of this community deeply offensive. There are a few people within Prudhoe who suggest we should accept second or third best. They should reflect deeply on the concerns in the minds of hundreds of people last night.
    

    about a minute ago ·
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  I was not at the meeting last night. I did not need to be. There were hundreds of people wanting to put their point of view and be heard. My wife was one of them. The little clip I reproduce from this morning's Journal well sets the tone. Co-incidentally yesterday afternoon a new consultation brochure came through the post. It is uploaded along with some comment here. Not to point out that this is a multi storey car park or that the only food retail is Sainbury is to be economical with the actualite.

Ludlow and Prudhoe

Last night a new BBC2 programme from Nick Crane looked at the 10,000 strong community of Ludlow. Apparently very different to Prudhoe but listen to it, the parallels are clear. One of the mini-stories, Tesco. The community fought for eight years to get the supermarket they were prepared to have. Tesco finally agreed to a unique design fitting the parameters of the site. It can be done. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012zy8d