The Fellgate Folly

South Tyneside Council planned to put the greenbelt land at Fellgate under concrete in a speculative and unsustainable gamble to allegedly bring jobs to South Tyneside.  However, it's obvious by the position on the boundary of South Tyneside and adjacent to three major dual carriageways shows that the priority is for jobs outside the borough.  Our press release prompted a council response showing a  cavalier attitude to our greenbelt.

STFOE have offered a response to the council's proposals to build on the greenbelt at Fellgate.

Update...

South Tyneside Friends of the Earth, together with local residents, campaigned both locally and regionally against South Tyneside Council’s plans to build a massive 90 hectare industrial estate on greenbelt farmland between the Fellgate estate and the A184. After public consultation for the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), the planning inspector decided against the project, and the greenbelt is saved for now.

Place your industrial park here...

Protect our greenbelt

The greenbelt protects us from the urban sprawl that is symptomatic of the car-centered unsustainable development of the last thirty years.

A Mori poll, conducted on behalf of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, suggested that 85% of people oppose building on undeveloped land.

Building on greenbelt land is not compatible with the Government's position on sustainable communities.

Other business parks within Tyne & Wear are currently under-utilised - the Fellgate site would only add to that surplus.

South Tyneside Council is allowing existing brownfield sites to be used for house building.

The land at Fellgate has been farmed for hundreds of years and displays evidence of ridge and furrow farming.