Malmo Quay Application
Hello, it’s us, the rarely heard from Free Trade Inn
Once again we’re sorry for the lack of contact, this spring has been absolutely crackers & it’s been hard to keep up. So a quick thank you to everyone that’s kept us so busy over the past few weeks and months.
Today is a quick check in about the latest application for the Malmo and Spillers Quay development. This application has actually been live for nearly a month after resurfacing with no warning. We’d have been in touch with details earlier, however they’ve not been easy to come by this time.
There’s very little publicly available in the way of renderings or images, and what is available is pretty much inaccessible as the application will not load on the council planning portal. We’ll try and summarise here though, and be aware, the official deadline if you’d like to make comments to the council is 17th April, though the usually take representation up until committee day. If you want to be safe though, you’ve got until Thursday.
The Application.
This latest application is again a ‘hybrid’ application including Malmo and Spillers Quays. Malmo is the triangle of land directly in front of the pub, and Spillers is the site which currently houses the Cycle Hub.
The plan for Malmo include a 10 story tower block, which is the same height as the 2022 application and a range of townhouses and buildings of 3 storeys.
On Spillers site they are seeking an ‘outline planning application’ to erect a range of ‘residential blocks’ of between 3 & 4 storeys in the future.
Now, obviously none of this is as shocking as the 18 storey tower block on Malmo and blocks of 9 storeys on Spillers as in previous versions of the application. Whether it’s appropriate for the area is up for debate, it’s certainly not without (major) issues, but we’ll let you all decide on that.
What we wanted to do today is put all of the information in your hands, or certainly as much as can get our hands on.
As previously mentioned, the council planning portal is effectively out of action for this application as it stands. What is on there when you can get on is not particularly digestible. There are very few useful images, indeed the two below are the only renderings of the the development might look like we found so far.
The most useful document available on the portal is the ‘Design and Access Statement, 2025 Addendum), which gives a rundown of the application timeline so far and you can find here.
Making representations.
If you’d like to make comments to the council and are lucky enough to be able to access the planning portal you can of course make comments there.
Failing that the email address to use is…
Malmo.quays@newcastle.gov.uk
Make sure to include the reference number 2021/2404/01/EIA
What can I comment about?
As always, representations should focus on points of planning policy
What will be considered?
The types of issues that may be considered include:
layout
siting (where something is positioned on the site)
design and external appearance of buildings
access
highway safety
impact on the neighbourhood inc issues such as parking.
Some points to consider…
10 Storeys will still be the largest building at the East End of the Quayside by far, and at odds with the natural lowering of height of the Tyne Gorge.
This application seeks to build 58 units on Malmo and another 80 on Spillers with only 13 confirmed car parking spaces on Malmo. The area is already under immense strain in regards to parking, likely to be increased with the (already granted) development of another 50 homes on St Lawrence Road.
The ‘hybrid’ nature of the application, coupled with the fact that information is not easy to come by due to planning portal accessibility issues means very little is info is available for the Spillers site. In fact very little is publicly available for either site. If you feel you have not been given access to make informed representations, let the council know.
We’re continuing to see what further info or images we can get a hold of, and when we do we’ll make sure to share them. In the meantime, if you‘d like to make comments to the council we hope this has helped, and if you have any questions feel free to email and we’ll see what we can do.
Back into pub land for a moment, it’s the first Bank Holiday weekend of the year and we’re stocked up and ready for ya! We’ve Fire and Dough here on Wednesday as usual and we’re joined by ‘Paninaro Sud Africano’ on Friday and Saturday, who’ve been making a lot of fans with their South African-meets-Italian offering.
For those that have been asking ‘Hake’ are back from their holidays next week and back into their usual Friday Night slot for the rest of the summer.
We hope you’re all well, and have a great long weekend.
Mick & The Team
Email sent ✅