7,000 Houses Free-for-All

[for fawkes sake]

In the days when this forum/web site was a good read and not simply a therapy vehicle for Harry Blackwood many readers would have spotted the story on the main page telling us that 7,000 houses are in the pipeline for Hartlepool, some of which come from planning applications that had previously already been rejected. The developers are taking over with the very dubious direct involvement of several councillors.

It's the kind of story which this site does best and which The Mail choses to turn a blind eye to - one more reason why personal cat fights should be ignored. There are far more serious matters happening in our town.

[mk1]

The developers are taking over with the very dubious direct involvement of several councillors.

I noticed it on the front page  and I presume Wells (Sole proprietor, Hartlepool Conservatives) is the one who is in the limelight.
Only time will tell how it goes but the track record does not bode well for anyone expecting an impartial  outcome.

[craig finton]

Copied from the main page:

"New Housing  Development plans  include: Wynyard, 200  to 600+ Houses;  Tunstall Farm, 110 to  160 Houses; South  West Extension, 2.750  Houses; High Tunstall  Farm,  1,200 to 1,250  Houses; Bishop  Cuthbert Extension  Plans, Increased from  150 Houses to 500+ Houses. We understand that there are  also developing plans to build 1,000+ houses at North  Brierton Farm and 280 new houses at Nelson Farm, Hart  Station."

Someone is making a lot of money out of doing away with the Local Plan, or maybe its just a new BMW?

[fred c]

The OK for the first 500 has been approved............ Personally i wonder where the extra  15,000 to 20,000 people that will occupy the proposed houses are going to come from & where they are going to work.

[DRiddle]

God knows what's going on. Hartlepool's population is only growing by around 200 people year. Only around 800 houses are typically sold in a calendar year in Hartlepool.

Yet 7,000 are potentially going to be built since the scrapping of the town plan.

Exactly what the councils officers warned would happen. Exactly what was predicted by many on here before the plan was even scrapped.

Look at WHERE they're being built too. The 'gaps' between one area of Hartlepool and another are gradually being filled in. Soon Hartlepool will reach wolviston, which will reach billingham, which reaches Stockton, which reaches Middlesbrough.

Then of course there's the distance between Hartlepool and Wynyard shrinking by the week.

Anyone would think the long term plan was to create the city of Teesside... .

[steveL]

Interesting that the original 150 extra houses on Bishop Cuthbert have now been increased to 500. I suppose if your a developer operating in an 'anything goes' environment then you would try to cram in more houses while you can. It looks like Hart is set to become another Norton, just another village merged into a greater suburbia.

[Pwilson]

What I find staggering is that HBC needs to save a lot of money.

So they waste some on a vision or should that be hallucination?

Bin an expensive plan, which will undoubtedly need replacing at considerable cost.

But worse than that the rank amateurs who sit in the council chamber & occasionally don some ceremonial garments pay a fortune of our money to well qualified officers to run things and advise on what should be done. Then the arrogant, self-absorbed and out of touch, power mad lunatics just ignore the advice time and time again.

I'm beginning to wonder if CAB & his puppet are actually in the game of destroying Hartlepool on purpose.

[George]

Come on everyone knows the local authority makes the largest amount of income via council tax, hence Stockton with Ingelby Barwick having a big advantage over say Middlesborough. Who is going to look a gift house in the mouth?

[DRiddle]

George, we're not just talking about 'a few extra houses'. 7,000 represents 16% of all of the houses that have so far EVER EXISTED in Hartlepool.

If is was as easy for every town in the country to make more money by simply sticking up more houses, every town in the country would be doing it.... but they're not. The demand has to be there.

Our town is growing by 200 people a year.

[mk1]

The thinking seems to be they have given up trying to attract firms and investment and they are totally reliant on housing/council tax. All that matters is filling up the coffers so the councillors can keep  awarding themselves contracts to service the deprivation they are inevitably increasing.
Do not be surprised, once these houses are built if the council go touting about the Southern shires  offering to take in all the problem families/asylum seekers and homeless people they want to get rid of.

[mk1]

Are there any figures on empty houses in the marina? Some of the ones in Victoria Terrace have never had a tennant.

[stokoe]

also of the top of my head new homes being built now 45 in Tanfield rd 30 on the old foggy furze. Then there's seaton,bottom of church st Chester area most probably more elsewhere that's been passed.

[Pwilson]

The thinking seems to be they have given up trying to attract firms and investment and they are totally reliant on housing/council tax.

This wouldn't be wholly bad if they invested in the town centre, and there was an expansion of the Metro/formation of a Tees Valley Metro.

At least then we would have a town where people who worked would live and where people could move aroud freely.

I kind of predict you're more on the mark with the deprived thing

[steveL]

This is nearly all green build but as Stokoe says, there is plenty of smaller scale building going on as well. Would not most people think that a pleasant town to live in would include large areas of green space between housing estates? We seem to be filling in all the gaps. In addition, if you're already a homeowner, consider the effect of 7,000 new houses are likely to have on the market price of your house. Supply and Demand Rules OK.

Just a little tip. Keep an eye on who's moving where and driving what these days. Not all windfalls come in brown envelopes.

[marky]

What a wonderful thing Google is. Turns out Niramax, Seneca, Euro Properties can all be connected. Haven't found the link to Ruttles yet but somehow I think it's only a matter of time.