A1 services approved despite objections

Plans for a new service station in Gosforth have been approved

Plans to build a new service station near the A1 have been approved despite worries over traffic and increased sewage.

Newcastle City Council's planning committee has agreed to grant planning permission for the development to go ahead on a field in Rotary Way in Gosforth.

It will include a filling station and a drive-through cafe, as well as a car wash and EV charging facilities.

More than 80 locals raised objections to the proposal, complaining there was already another petrol station across the road from the site, but committee members voted in favour of the scheme six to three, with one abstention.

Resident Laura Greenhill told the planning committee earlier that the traffic in the area was already "horrendous" and feared it would increase with the addition of more services.

Eileen Whitenstall, who lives on the North Gosforth Park estate, added that she and her neighbours had suffered from the smell of raw sewage on their estate ever since they moved in six years ago, leaving them unable to open their windows or sit outside.

She said allowing the development risked "doubling the commercial sewage" through the area's sewers.

Previous plans

City planners said that Northumbrian Water had deemed Brookfield Property (Holdings) Limited's plans acceptable.

Parklands ward Lib Dem councillor, Pauline Allen, said locals thought the new services were a "crazy" idea that would damage a wildlife habitat used by deer from the nearby nature reserve.

But James Hall, of planning consultants Stantec, told councillors that the services would not be signposted from the A1 and would not generate a significant number of extra journeys.

An earlier version of the project, which included two drive-through units rather than only one, was refused planning permission in 2023 on grounds of over-development and harm to the environment.

The committee also heard that the services would have their own pumping station which would only release effluent into the sewers when there was capacity.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, councillors resolved to write to Northumbrian Water to convey residents' concerns about the sewage stench and ask what was being done to resolve the problem.

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