Year Six pupils from St. Peter and Paul R.C. Primary School
joined the Mayor of South Tyneside, Councillor Ken Stephenson this week to
officially open one of a scheme in South Shields, St Mary’s; now known as ‘The
Staithes’. It is located in Tyne Dock off Lord Nelson Street, it comprises of
31 two and three bedroom homes and six two-bedroom bungalows for older
residents. This development was constructed on behalf of Karbon Homes, it was
built on the site of the former St. Mary’s CofE Primary School and the adjacent
St. Mary’s Centre. Construction works completed earlier this year and all homes
are now fully occupied. Cllr. Ken Stephenson, Mayor of South Tyneside, said:
“I’m delighted to officially open this development, we are committed to working
in partnership to provide much-needed affordable homes to meet local need
across the Borough. I’m sure anyone living at The Staithes will be proud to
call it home.”
Year six pupils at St Peter and Paul RC Primary School were
asked to create artwork for the scheme, and they used the history of the docks
and shipyards in South Shields as their inspiration. A piece of artwork was
created to act as an entrance feature.
The Staithes was highly commended in the High Volume New
Housing Development category of the Local Authority Building Control North East
Building Excellence Awards last month. The layout for the development uses the
‘Home Zone’ principles to ensure all the homes are easily accessible, and the
site is pedestrian and cycle friendly, with traffic calming measures
throughout.
The new homes were built by Gus Robinson Developments,
designed by architects Norr Consultants and the design was approved by the
North East Design Review Panel. Portland Consulting Engineers and Elliot
Associates were also part of the project team.
Children from a Newcastle primary school got a chance to see
how a real building site works and even got to see a sneak preview of the new
homes being built in their area. The Year 1 children from Mountfield Primary
School, Kenton visited the Karbon Homes site on Burnfoot Way, just a short
distance from their school gates.
The children were walked around
the perimeter of the site to observe how the staff and machinery operate.
The children were asked to point
out some of the hazards of a building site, and also had the chance to see the
site office and check on the plans for the new homes, with an elevated view of
the development work. Ellen Hagan, technical manager for Gus Robinson Developments, said: "Hopefully this visit has given the children an insight into how many different processes go into building houses, and why building sites can be dangerous places to be, so safety is always paramount.
Gus Robinson Developments is
constructing a collection of 12 new affordable homes at Burnfoot Way, including
2 bed bungalows, 2 bed flats and 2 and 3 bed family houses on behalf of Karbon
Homes. All will be available to let at Affordable Rent levels in the autumn.
The new homes are being built at
one end of a large open area on Burnfoot Way. Karbon Homes is consulting with
the local community on a plan for Karbon to invest in developing the adjacent
public open space for local residents to enjoy.
Stephen Bell, Managing director at Gus Robinson Developments had this to say: "In 2014 I started working at Gus Robinson Dev’s. One of the first projects I started working on was this scheme in South Shields. 4 years later & after a lot of hard work from lot’s of people, here it is featured as Inside Housing development of the week"
