Developer submits plans for a 1,500-home village

APPLICATION FOR NEW HOUSING ESTATE COULD BE DECIDED ON BY END OF THE YEAR

Proposals for a new village which could become home to 1,500 new houses, businesses and a health centre have been submitted to planners.

North East firm Tolent has drafted an application for the South Seaham Garden Village, which would be built of the A182 at Dawdon, and it hopes a decision could be made by the end of the year.

The plot was previously approved as the site of a multi-million pound Centre for Creative Excellence film studio, which failed to materialise.

The village plans set out how half of the homes would be classed as affordable and include “entry level” properties through the Home Group, with properties designed with older people in mind to include houses which offer independent living, assisted living and dependent care facilities.

The plans also feature shops, land for a new primary school, an “innovation hub” for research and office space and a health and wellbeing centre.

It will also have a new spine road through the village, which will see regular bus services put on to offer direct links to Seaham, Dalton Park and the wider area.

The planning statement sets out how, if approved, the development would be constructed over 12 years and create 500 jobs through apartnershipwiththeCon- struction Industry Training BoardandtheNationalSkills Academy for Construction, with 300 permanent jobs in the village, as well as a further 160 roles off-site through businesses, employees and new residents.

It says the site’s owners have been looking at alternative uses for the area since 2012 and identified a need for more housing, particularly affordable homes and accommodation for older people.

It states: “The garden village proposal therefore seeks to meet these identified needs by creating a sustainable settlement with new homes, new job opportunities and new facilities for the community that will develop in the garden village and for the wider East Durham area.”

Tolent chairman John Wood said: “We were really encouraged by the positive feedback from the public consultation in February and have now formally submitted an outline planning application to the county council, which can be viewed on the council’s website.”

The full application can be viewed via https://goo.gl/ JVnLRn

A look at what housing on the South Seaham Garden Village could look like and, below, aplan how how streets and space could look if the plans by Tolent are approved.