New and redrawn plans for 57 Newcastle apartments lodged after council rejection

Earlier this year, a Government planning inspector upheld Newcastle City Council’s 2023 decision to refuse permission for a 57-apartment complex in Lime Street. An altered vision for the scheme has now been submitted back to the local authority for approval, in the hope of reviving the development.

The council’s planning committee rejected the original proposals on the grounds that the crescent-shaped building would have a harmful impact on the Ouseburn Valley’s conservation area and that some of the flats would not have adequate light levels, with councillors rebelling against city planners’ advice in their decision.

That verdict was upheld by the Planning Inspectorate in March this year, with an inspector agreeing that the scheme would “not provide satisfactory living conditions for future occupiers” and was therefore unacceptable.

However, they disagreed with the other concern and concluded that the benefits of regenerating a disused patch of land outweighed any harm caused to the area. The new planning application, put forward by By the River Brew Co. co-founder Rob Cameron, is for 57 apartments within a building that would stand between four and six storeys tall.

It would require the demolition of buildings including a former MOT centre and a pigeon cree on the site. The key changes to the application relate to three apartments at the southern end of the development, which have been redesigned to become dual-aspect in order to increase the amount of light they get.

The application states: “Clearance of the 7-45 Lime Street site and its redevelopment represents a significant change at a key location within the Lower Ouseburn Valley. Conservation involves managing change to a significant place in its setting in ways that sustain, reveal or reinforce its cultural and natural heritage values. 

“The design of the development has been approached with the aim of not doing harm to the significance of the site, its setting and the wider Conservation area, where possible, further revealing the site’s heritage values and also making a positive contribution to the ongoing sustainable regeneration of the Ouseburn Valley.

“All this must be achieved while ensuring the viability of the scheme is not compromised.”

The application is expected to come back before the council’s planning committee for a decision at an unconfirmed date.