Right of Way Dispute on South Shields’ Riverfront
17th July 2024 by Luan Hanratty
A ‘Definitive Map Modification Order’ application was rejected on Monday 15th July by the narrowest of margins by the South Tyneside Council Planning Committee. The campaign group: ‘Re-Open the King Charles III England Coast Path’ (RKC3ECP) submitted the application and the Council’s decision is being appealed at the time of writing.
The dispute is over access to a 350 yard stretch of riverfront (once part of Brigham & Cowan Shipyard) and the plan to create a private marina in the Market Dock recess adjoining the Long Row and South Quays apartment blocks, built in the mid 1990s and late 2000s respectively.
Penbal’s View:
Viability
There are two issues here. The proposed marina is a patch of water well below the road level. It is inaccessible and quite dirty, collecting a lot of passing river skem and trash and home to a load of rats in the rocks nearby. With work, this could be transformed into a cramped wharf, but it’s still a stretch to call it a marina. It could never fit more than a handful of small boats. Importantly, only one of its three sides is claimed as private land. The other sides of the space are unquestionably public.
This is certainly not any counterpoint to the Royal Quays on the north side, where people are free to wander around. The Royal Quays was originally a port at the drainage basin of three burns and built when the Tyne was one of the world’s busiest waterways. The Market Dock recess is a dark and small tidal gully. I appreciate the vision, but let’s see it for what it is. At the same time, doing anything with it would represent an improvement.
Legitimacy
Even though private land may typically be fenced off, erecting a fence does not magically make land private. This is called ‘affirming the consequent’ and the Council’s highways advisor based his argument on this fallacy:
“Councillors heard the council had been advised [by Dave Carr, South Tyneside Council’s highways and infrastructure manager] that the erection of a fence during the development in the area “removed the 20-year test” and that the application failed on that basis.”
Shields Gazette, 16th July
As well as this, the ‘20 year rule’ is not black and white here. For a start, the section of path alongside the Long Row is over 20 years old. Housebuilding finished there in the late 90s, and so to gate that off in 2017 is quite literally closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
The South Quays half of the path has been there for 17 years, which is not to be dismissed. Prior to that and following the demise of the shipyard in the 1980s, the land was derelict. Closing it off at an arbitrary time years later is neither fair nor reasonable and should not diminish the tenure of the public’s access claim.
The question is: why should a marina be for the benefit of a select few residents on a piece of land that was, since the late 90s, publicly accessible?
Resolution
Most local residents, myself included, want to see some life around the place. But this shouldn’t come at the expense of a public right of way. Why not open it up for everyone to enjoy? That way everyone’s a winner. Alternatively, if the Council want a marina there, they should propose a vision for the place in the proper way, following public consultation.
Join this group to keep abreast of the issue:
facebook.com/groups/reopenthecoastpath
Reference article:
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No air-built castles, and no fairy bowers,
But thou, fair Tynemouth, and thy well-known towers,
Now bid th’ historic muse explore the maze
Of long past years, and tales of other days.
Pride of Northumbria!—from thy crowded port,
Where Europe’s brave commercial sons resort,
Her boasted mines send forth their sable stores,
To buy the varied wealth of distant shores.
Here the tall lighthouse, bold in spiral height,
Glads with its welcome beam the seaman’s sight.
Here, too, the firm redoubt, the rampart’s length,
The death-fraught cannon, and the bastion’s strength,
Hang frowning o’er the briny deep below,
To guard the coast against th’ invading foe.
Here health salubrious spreads her balmy wings,
And woos the sufferer to her saline springs;
And, here the antiquarian strays around
The ruin’d abbey, and its sacred ground.
Jane Harvey
From ‘The Castle of Tynemouth. A Tale’ (1806)
Photograph: Lee Stoneman
Photograph: Lee Stoneman
No air-built castles, and no fairy bowers,
But thou, fair Tynemouth, and thy well-known towers,
Now bid th’ historic muse explore the maze
Of long past years, and tales of other days.
Pride of Northumbria!—from thy crowded port,
Where Europe’s brave commercial sons resort,
Her boasted mines send forth their sable stores,
To buy the varied wealth of distant shores.
Here the tall lighthouse, bold in spiral height,
Glads with its welcome beam the seaman’s sight.
Here, too, the firm redoubt, the rampart’s length,
The death-fraught cannon, and the bastion’s strength,
Hang frowning o’er the briny deep below,
To guard the coast against th’ invading foe.
Here health salubrious spreads her balmy wings,
And woos the sufferer to her saline springs;
And, here the antiquarian strays around
The ruin’d abbey, and its sacred ground.
Jane Harvey
From ‘The Castle of Tynemouth. A Tale’ (1806)
