FAQs

You already have planning permissions in place so why are you submitting another application?

Wynyard Park has enjoyed the benefit of planning permission for employment development from the mid-1990s.

Across the whole site, permission is in place for a total of 685,150 sq m of commercial employment space, of which some 90,000 m sq has been built on – all within Stockton Borough Council’s boundary. Half of this was carried out by Samsung before it abandoned the site and the remainder by Wynyard Park Ltd since it acquired the site in 2005, creating over 1000 jobs and attracting some 55 companies to the site.

Within the Hartlepool Borough Council area, the permission exists for the development of 314,174 sq m but none has yet been carried out.

While we can and will continue to market the site with the benefit of the existing permissions, proper spatial planning means we continually have to respond to changes in the region and within the development sector. We also need to reflect on the new coalition Government’s policy on private sector investment to generate economic growth.

Existing approval was granted on the planning basis of some 20 years ago that paid little attention to energy and climate change. Both these are now high on everyone’s agenda, including that of Wynyard Park Ltd. The new application addresses these issues wherever possible. For example, installing charging points for electric cars.

 

What are the key differences between this latest plan and the ones that already have permission?

The addition of a residential area is the biggest difference.

In these changing circumstances we are committed to a radical review of the development potential of the site that would be an exemplar scheme in terms of design, build quality and sustainability.

We commissioned Savills to explore the opportunities to be gained from broadening the range of uses at Wynyard Park to include housing in order to ensure the stimulation of the economic development of the site. Their resulting report fully supports this view.

 

Why is housing so essential?

Development of higher quality housing will help remove the imbalance in the housing market, both in Hartlepool and the wider area. It will also help rebalance the shortfall in the supply of housing in locations that are attractive to aspirational households, and who otherwise would commute from outside the district, thus generating longer journeys to work and loss of spending power within the Tees Valley.

Proximity of high quality homes and work places will encourage people to live closer to their place of work, which will reduce journeys to work and therefore minimise the impact on the environment.

These proposals for a mixed and balanced community will deliver a range of affordability levels that is not reliant on increasingly scarce public subsidy.

Also, it does not make sense to encourage waves of employees to come into an area in the morning and leave again in the evening. Not only does it cause traffic congestion but a socially ‘dead’ living environment outside of working hours. Having housing on site will counteract both these issues to a great extent, plus enable people to walk or cycle to work and so reducing carbon emissions.

It has been estimated that the volume of private vehicle trips on the external road network would be reduced for a scheme, incorporating the proposed residential, by around 80% in the peak periods as compared to the existing consent for office development occupying the same development area.

 

Why have you organised the two consultation days?

We remain committed to creating a truly visionary development in a landscaped environment, which is highly sustainable, and creates a high quality environment for people to live and work.

As part of our commitment to consultation, we wish to keep our neighbours abreast of progress and to engage in debate as to what they may like to see in any new vision.

 

There are several references to the building of a new hospital on site but everyone knows that there is currently no funding for this. Why have you retained that with several other development opportunities in the new plan?

The Trust has purchased the land for the new hospital and whilst the public funding was withdrawn, the Trust is wholly committed to the new facility on the basis that the clinical need is still the major factor driving the scheme forward. The Trust is close to securing private sector funding and has recently made public announcements on this in the press.

The commercial buildings indicated around the hospital site are what we have planning permission for and can be developed. We envisage that the occupiers of these buildings could be businesses related to the many facets of day to day functions of a modern hospital. We have looked at exemplar schemes both here and in Europe where such an investment in health care can generate other growth in the private sector and such growth can be accelerated by the hospital.