Anger over ‘restricted’ meeting

South Shields riverside development causes concern

New developments planned for South Shields riverside in the Market Dock and Long Row area were discussed at last week’s meeting of South Tyneside Riverside Community Area Forum and caused such an uproar that many residents walked out of the meeting when they were not allowed the opportunity to discuss the matter or question ward councillors about it. The feeling was that the building work hurriedly announced by a photocall with local press was being bounced upon local residents who saw the move as a virtual fait accompli wthout widespread community consultation.

It must be remembered that the plans had been discussed on numerous occasions in various council committees and that all three Labour ward councillors were fully aware of the developments and had served on the committees which approved them. The humdrum proceedings of planning committees and the legally worded public notices in small print in the back pages of a local newspaper are not the type of communications which excite the imagination of most people, so perhaps it might have been a good idea to have kept the Lawe Top and riverside residents more in touch during the planning process. This duty ought to have been seen as paramount by their representatives.

After the furore at last week’s CAF a new meeting has been arranged to take place in South Shields Town Hall at 6.30 p.m. tonight, however South Tyneside Council has a list of streets where invitations were sent to, and those outside of the favoured streets may not necessarily gain entrance to the meeting! So if you live on the edge of what some councillors or officers think are the affected areas then your thoughts will not be sought or invited, your opinions will be thoroughly overlooked it seems.

Mr. Ahmed Khan (pictured) has been asked to represent the views of Lawe Top residents in South Shields, however he has not received an invitation to this somewhat ‘private meeting’, and has written to the Chief Executive of South Tyneside Council, Irene Lucas and copied in the town’s MP David Miliband expressing his views and asserting his rights to attend and represent the views of residents.

“Following last week’s public announcement by South Tyneside Council regarding the Garlands Contact Centre in Market Dock there is a considerable amount of concern amongst local residents regarding the implications of a development of this scale, especially in relation to traffic congestions, parking, pollution, noise, personal safety, property values and the inevitable detrimental effects on their quality of life.

There is also growing anger at the way in which this whole affair was made public, in particular at the ‘cloak and dagger’ approach adopted by your officers, councillors, the developers, One NorthEast and Garlands Contact Centres.

Many residents attended the Riverside CAF on Thursday 19th July to raise their concerns with their elected representatives. Although there was no specific item on the agenda (due to the speed of the announcement) the sheer number of residents that turned up left the CAF chairman Cllr. Anglin with little choice other than to make reference to it under the guise of the ‘Chairman’s Urgent Business’. What then followed was to put it bluntly a farce!

Residents were told by the Cllr. Anglin that he and his fellow councillors (one of whom was a former chairperson of the planning committee) knew nothing about the development other than the fact that planning permission had been granted several years ago. He went on to suggest that they were not aware of the scale of the development and that the ward councillors were aware of the concerns of residents especially in relation to access issues. He announced that the 3 labour councillors (Cllrs. WOOD, McMillan and Anglin) had arranged a separate meeting for Tuesday 24th July and hoped that planning officers and representatives from the developers and occupiers would also be on hand but could not confirm this as the “directors were on holiday”.

He then stated that he was not prepared to take questions on this issue nor allow any debate. Independent councillor Jane Branley tried to intervene by trying to ask questions about the development and was effectively shouted down by Councillors Anglin and McMillan and their colleagues. A number of residents were also denied the right to speak at the meeting and were effectively gagged. Residents witnessed first hand the spectacle of Cllr. McMillan trying to move the proceedings on and former Mayor Councillor Ed Malcolm trying to use points of order to quash any debate.

Having witnessed this disgraceful attempt to quash any form of debate most residents walked out of the meeting in disgust.

I have now been contacted by a number of residents asking me to attend Tuesday’s meeting at their invitation and have agreed to do so. I am now advised that a select number of residents have today received a letter from one of your officers – Rick O’Farrell Head of Enterprise and Regeneration. In it he identifies what he deems to be the area’s residents and informs them that the meeting on Tuesday is a private one. I have attached a copy of the letter for your information.

The content of the letter seems to support the theory that the council wants to keep any opposition to a minimum and appears to be an attempt to gag public opinion. I sincerely hope that this is not the case and that the content and tone of the letter is not politically driven!

I have already indicated that I have been invited by local residents to attend Tuesday’s meeting and am taking this opportunity to confirm to you that I will be doing so. I trust that neither your officers nor elected representatives make any attempt to deny me my basic democratic right to free speech, freedom of movement nor deny me my basic human rights as defined by the Human Rights Act 1998 (chapter 42), specifically; Article 10 Freedom of Expression and Article 11 FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AND ASSOCIATION.”

Curly, unfortunately will be at the BUPA Hospital in Washington this evening, so won’t be around to see the outcome of this interesting little affair, however I hope to receive a timely report of the proceedings and trust that our local newspaper has a representative in attendance and that we will see a hard hitting report tomorrow!