An independent fuel retailer is facing a planning battle after a local MP leant their support to a petition aimed at preventing them from demolishing historic cottages as they knock down and rebuild their forecourt.
SRJ Energy says the Esso site in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, is “outdated and visually unattractive”. The firm wants to knock it down, erecting a modern forecourt with a 2,400sq ft shop in its place.
The project would also see a pair of listed 19th century cottages, which SRJ owns, demolished. A heritage assessment commissioned by the company says the cottages have “been subject to a substantial degree of unsympathetic alteration”, which has “detracted from their intrinsic value in historical and architectural terms”.
South Tyneside Council has yet to rule on the application, but a petition aimed at preventing the cottages’ demolition has garnered over 1,000 signatures, while South Shields MP, Emma Lewell, has written a letter urging the local authority to reject the planning application.
The Shields Gazette reports Lewell saying the cottages, built in 1878, “form an integral part of Harton Village’s history and cannot be replaced if they are lost to development”.
Lewell adds that while she sees development as “critically important to the future of towns”, she believes “it would be preferable if developers who actively acquire historical buildings of significant placement could invest in their preservation and repurposing, rather than in demolition”.
