Gateshead quayside complex to go ahead

Controversial plans to build a £260m arena complex on Gateshead Quayside will go ahead after the government declined to call the plan in.

The proposed riverside arena, with conference centre and hotel, was granted planning permission last month.

Residents at the nearby Baltic Quays flats said the complex would be "monstrously overbearing" and asked for the government to intervene.

However, Gateshead Council said the government had decided not to.

The council said the development would be a "world class" addition to the area's Quayside and bring an extra 400,000 visitors and more than £60m a year to the local economy.

A Gateshead Council spokesman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "The Secretary of State has decided not to call in this application. 

"Construction is due to begin early in 2021, giving a boost to the local supply chain and creating job opportunities at a time when the region needs it the most."

Baltic Quays resident and director of Baltic Quays Leaseholds Ltd, Peter Bauckham, said: "It remains our view that the hotel will be a blight on the Quayside landscape and be monstrously overbearing."

The new arena site will be on land between the Sage and the Baltic, with the 12,500-capacity venue.

Developer Ask Patrizia said it could be open in late 2023.

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