Outline approval for 1,200 home High Tunstall plan rubber-stamped by Hartlepool council planners

Prism Planning have secured outline approval for 1,200 homes, a new distributor road, a pub, shopping facilities, a primary school and open spaces on land at High Tunstall, Hartlepool.

The plans cover 83.5 hectares (206 acres) of land to the land south of Elwick Road.

Hartlepool Borough Council planning committee approved the plan in December last year, and council officers have now completed the final details of the Section 106 legal agreement, finalising the plans.

A Prism Planning spokesman said: “At long last, some 5 years since our first involvement in the project and 4 1⁄2 years since the planning application was submitted, Prism Planning secured outline planning permission.

“We recognised from the outset that a scheme of such magnitude was never going to be straight forward and so it turned out.

“The development will provide up to 1,200 homes, a neighbourhood centre including a primary school, a new distributor road and amenity open space including structure planting.”

Associated with the development and part financed by it, significant highway works will be undertaken, including a northern by-pass to Elwick village linking to the A19.

The plans also include the provision of a new grade separated junction north west of Elwick, gap closures on the A19, and improvements to a number of junctions with Hartlepool.

Previously more than 400 letters of objection were submitted to the council in regard to the plans, raising concerns such as potential road issues, pressure on schools and health facilities, noise pollution and overdevelopment.

The site is allocated as part of the 2018 Hartlepool Local Plan to deliver approximately 1,200 houses.

The plans are expected to be delivered over a 10 to 13-year period and will include a distributor road and car parking.

Nic Marko , Local Democracy Reporting Service