Major update on new A1 service station amid 'horrendous' traffic concerns and sewage stench

Newcastle City Council’s planning committee have agreed to grant planning permission for the development to go ahead on a field in Rotary Way. The scheme will include a filling station and a drive-through cafe, as well as a car wash and EV charging facilities.

More than 80 locals raised objections against the proposal, however, complaining that there is already another petrol station just across the road from the site, as well as a Travelodge, McDonald’s, and the Falcon’s Nest pub..

Resident Laura Greenhill told the planning committee on Friday that traffic in the area, next to the North Brunton interchange roundabout  and near Newcastle Racecourse, is already  “horrendous” and fears it will only increase with the addition of more services.

Eileen Whitenstall, who lives on the North Gosforth Park estate, added that she and her neighbours have suffered from the smell of raw sewage on their estate ever since they moved in six years ago, leaving them unable to open their windows or sit outside.

She said that Northumbrian Water had failed to resolve the issue and that allowing this development risked “doubling the commercial sewage” through the area’s sewers and increasing health and safety problems.

City planners said that Northumbrian Water had deemed Brookfield Property (Holdings) Limited’s plans acceptable and had not commented on any potential effects on the neighbouring housing estates, adding that the duplication of existing services was not a valid justification to refuse planning permission.

Parklands ward Lib Dem councillor Pauline Allen said locals thought the new services were a “crazy” idea that would damage a  wildlife habitat used by deer from the nearby nature reserve. But James Hall, of planning consultants Stantec, told councillors that the services would not be signposted from the A1 and cannot be accessed by HGVs.

He argued that the new station would not generate a significant number of extra journeys and said the developer had also gifted a parcel of land to the city council for a road improvement scheme.

An earlier version of the project, which included two drive-through units rather than only one, was refused planning permission in 2023 on grounds of overdevelopment and harm to the environment.

The committee also heard that the services would have their own pumping station which would only release effluent into the sewers when there is capacity. Committee members voted in favour of the scheme going ahead, by a margin of six to three with one abstention.

Liberal Democrat Doreen Huddart voiced concerns about wildlife and there being “no traffic control” to deal with the volume of cars already in the area. But Labour councillor Barry Phillipson said he did not foresee a major increase in traffic and was satisfied that planting of new trees and hedgerows would enhance the biodiversity of the site.

The committee also resolved to write to Northumbrian Water to convey residents’ concerns about the sewage stench and ask what was being done to resolve the problem. A separate application for the conversion of the Whites Hotel, on Osborne Road in Jesmond, into housing had also been due to be heard on Friday but was deferred to a late date.