Lack of progress on Trinity Square

Dear Mr Herring, please find below a response from Gateshead Council to
your questions on Trinity Square which we received on 5 May 2010.

1) What progress is being made with respect to the Trinity Square site,
since no work has visibly happened on the site in some months?

The Council has been in detailed discussions with Spenhill (the
regeneration development arm of Tesco) who have a major interest in
Trinity Square, for quite some time. During 2007 Tesco charged their
regeneration development company, Spenhill, with the redevelopment. It
was at that time that negotiations began in earnest and the council set
out our ambition for a development that would be much more than simply
replacement retailing. We are keen for a scheme that will include a range
of facilities that will make central Gateshead a place that is attractive
for residents and visitors. One that will bring more people into the area
to live and to spend leisure time and very importantly one that will
provide suitable town centre car parking. Our aim is to secure a major new
development that will potentially include a new Tesco store, further
shopping, student accommodation and other uses, to make a major impact on
the regeneration of the town centre

In what have inevitably been quite complicated negotiations we consider we
have made progress towards this vision. We have seen proposals developing
towards a scheme that has the potential of delivering what we believe are
the aspirations of Gateshead residents. Against the background of this
progress Spenhill made preparations by securing vacant possession of
Trinity Square so that demolition could commence. This was always with
the understanding that until negotiations were finalised demolition could
not be completed.

Unfortunately discussions have taken longer than the Council or Spenhill
expected. Until we reach a conclusion the council has taken the view that
it would be unwise to allow Spenhill to complete the demolition, and we
have been unable to put more details on the website because of commercial
confidentiality. I also cannot give you a date for commencement of
redevelopment.

2) The last update to [1]http://www.yourtrinitysquare.co.uk was over
a year and a half ago. What progress is being made to inform local
citizens about the regeneration (or lack thereof) of their town centre
which was originally promised to be completed in...

The "yourtrinitysquare" website is managed by Tesco. We have enquired
about updates and asked for a response to your contact via that site.

Once negotiations with Spenhill are concluded we will ask them put
information about the proposed scheme on the website and of course any
planning application would be publicised and the public would be able
to comment .

Currently the website includes information on the Council's strategic plan
for regenerating the Central area over the coming years - "Fit for a City"

To give some background, the Council has been working for a number of
years to make thorough preparations for overcoming the many challenges we
face in regenerating Gateshead's central area.

Those challenges include things we need to tackle to deliver developments
that people will find easy to use and attractive to visit - physical
considerations such as the slope of the land and movement and
accessibility issues including dealing with pedestrian routes, traffic,
car parking and public transport. There are legal matters including
dealing with multiple land ownerships and existing leases. Funding
redevelopment and finding investors are major issues.

As well as these we have to consider the economic changes we have all seen
over the years since the existing town centre was built - such as changes
in shopping habits, how and when people travel and what they expect from
visiting an urban centre.

The Council commissioned studies to take account of all of the issues and
recommend how we should go about delivering a town centre that will
firstly be a great place for local people but also be one that people will
want to visit.

The Council adopted a planning strategy for the Gateshead town centre in
July 2007 and a Regeneration Delivery Strategy (RDS) - entitled "Fit for a
City" - was completed in December 2008. You can see this 15 -20 year plan
on the Council's website. Fit for a City will be a guide for investment
and redevelopment and an Action Plan which sets out priorities for the
first three years was approved by Cabinet in March this year. One of the
priorities is a project to consider how vacant premises can be improved in
the short term until more permanent development is forthcoming. Included
in the priorities are projects to prepare for more significant
redevelopments.

3) when, exactly, was the development due to be originally completed?

A definite completion date has yet to be identified.

4) <[2]http://www.yourtrinitysquare.co.uk/our-v...> promises a
timescale 'soon.'
<[3]http://www.yourtrinitysquare.co.uk/comme...>

indicates that it this is the same phrase that was used in October 2008.
What is the current timescale?

As above - a completion date has not been identified.

5) Given the current, assumed, over-run, what promises were made to the
council in order to allow demolition to start, when it apparently
shouldn't have, depriving the town centre of all the businesses that were
there, that apparently could have been still trading, bringing - one
presumes - much needed cash into the town?

The scheme has been so complicated it has been very difficult to predict
how long negotiations would take. To give you a flavour of the
complexity, there are legal and commercial matters to thrash out as well
as development matters which include, buildings - materials, massing,
configuration - spaces, traffic and transport, car parking, potential
occupiers and uses, to name but a few. Of course the changing economic
situation has not helped.

Obtaining vacant possession of the site was in itself a time consuming
undertaking for Spenhill. That together with the work they had done on
pulling together a scheme with a range of uses gave the Council confidence
that a conclusion was in sight and so the decision was taken to allow
demolition to begin. The aim was to save time by running demolition in
parallel with negotiations rather than one after the other. Had we waited
for negotiations to be finalised demolition would still not have begun.
The situation now is that only a small part of the site remains to be
demolished - and that can start as soon as we reach a conclusion.

When demolition began both the Council and Spenhill anticipated being able
to finalise negotiations in time to allow an uninterrupted programme of
demolition. It is regrettable that we have been unable to achieve that
but the council feels it would be wrong to be forced into compromise
because of timescales.

With regards

Liz Reid

Economic Development Manager

Major Initiatives Team

Gateshead Council

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.yourtrinitysquare.co.uk/
http://www.yourtrinitysquare.co.uk/
2. http://www.yourtrinitysquare.co.uk/our-v...
http://www.yourtrinitysquare.co.uk/our-v...
3. http://www.yourtrinitysquare.co.uk/comme...
http://www.yourtrinitysquare.co.uk/comme...