A DEVELOPER behind green belt development plans is promising local people a “unique” £16m package of benefits if the project goes ahead.
Following months of consultations, the Lugano Group has submitted an outline planning application to Northumberland County Council to build 280 homes at Birney Hill, next to the exclusive Darras Hall estate.
The scheme has already sparked strong opposition from Hexham MP Guy Opperman, local county councillors and campaigners fighting to protect the open countryside around Ponteland.
Yesterday, Lugano – which owns the 2,500-acre Dissington Estate at Ponteland – claimed the development would be one of the first of its kind in the UK, and deliver significant community benefits.
The company proposes to gift about 97 acres of land to the Ponteland community, which would be managed by a trust owned and run by local people.
The trust would have access to a £3.5m pot to be spent on local projects, and a further £2m to help improve facilities at either the Merton Way or Broadway shopping centre. It would also be responsible for managing a community farm, improving local drainage and channel clearing on a 10-year contract, and managing commercial workspace to be built at Birney Hill.
The trust would also own and control eight rented properties on the development, and own the land on which 54 low-cost houses for sale will be built. Trust members would play a key role in managing these 54 properties, which would be ring-fenced for sale to local people at a huge discount on market values.
In total, Lugano says the community trust will have access to funding of between £8m and £10m to work on improving the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the town.
In addition, the company says it will commit a further £6m to help pay for improvements to local schools, education and transport, and fund other community benefits.
The company says its plans are “by far the largest private offering of community benefit anywhere in the UK”.
Yesterday, Lugano planning director Scott Munro said: “We believe this is a unique package and I would defy anyone to find anything as good as this anywhere else in the country.
“We think it would probably be the biggest community trust in the UK in terms of its resources and responsibilities. We have spoken to a number of people who have expressed an interest in being part of a community trust. The creation of the trust will set the tone for development for decades to come, leading by example on how to involve the community in the governance of the places in which they want to live.”
Five months ago, members of the Ponteland Green Belt Group protested outside a public exhibition of the Lugano proposals held in the Memorial Hall.
Yesterday Alma Dunigan, who chairs the group, said: “Our main principle is that the green belt is there for a very specific reason, and this plan would overturn that designation. What is being told to me by residents and supporters of the group is that we don’t need or want any development in the green belt.
“The community land trust idea seems to separate the land from the buildings and structures to go on it, and it could be a legal nightmare for people wanting to purchase.”
Local people and organisations can find out more about the Birney Hill pro- posals at a series of briefings from now until April. They will be advertised on the pontelandfutures.co.uk website.
