The committee report - the document produced by Newcastle City Council's planning officers advising the planning committee which way to vote - has been published and recommends the plans for approval.

 
Officers are have concocted an unconvincing argument in favour of Newcastle Great Park Consortium’s inappropriate development of the Green Belt, which will have a significant impact on the environment. 

The 117-page report acknowledges Cell B1 is not actually allocated for development, but is allocated as Community Woodland, with part of the site allocated as a Local Nature Reserve and a Site of Local Conservation Interest.

Campaign to Protect Rural England has objected to the plans and Banks Property Group has objected on the basis that the plans fail to assess the impacts of development on the local road network. 

No other wildlife organisations have objected to the plans, which would have an adverse effect on a regionally significant assemblage of breeding birds, including species considered scarce in Newcastle and North Tyneside, such as lesser whitethroat, garden warbler, siskin, jay, green woodpecker and treecreeper. 

Willow tit, a ‘rare breeding bird’ with less than 1,000 breeding pairs nationally, will be lost to this development.

Insufficient consideration is given to the importance of land around the reserve as a corridor for the red squirrel population to disperse into the wider landscape and to the impact of domestic pets on wildlife in and around the reserve. 

Only 63 affordable houses will be built on site as part of this application.