More than 100 local people have been taking a first look at plans for the creation of a new community to the north west of Newcastle.
Banks Property, part of the County Durham-headquartered Banks Group, is looking to create the new Kingston Village, a multi-million pound development of around 900 new family homes on a 49-hectare site to the west of Brunton Lane, which was allocated for housing in 2015 in the Newcastle & Gateshead One Core Strategy.
And the company has already had its first enquiries from visitors to the exhibition who were interested in buying a property at Kingston Village if it gets to go ahead.
The scheme will also include a new primary school, a number of retail outlets, allotments and the creation of large areas of high quality open space including a village green, giving it a unique community identity and also benefiting biodiversity.
It will include a network of public footpaths and cycle ways, including new links to nearby Kingston Park, and will also support the development of other local infrastructure and improved public transport to benefit new and existing residents.
Banks Property set up community exhibitions in Dinnington, Kingston Park and Newcastle Great Park to introduce its plans to local residents, answer their questions and gather their input on the different aspects of the village proposal.
Feedback from more than 100 exhibition attendees will be reviewed as part of the development of the planning application that the company will eventually submit to Newcastle City Council, and a follow-up event is being planned for early in the new year to show how the scheme design is evolving.
Banks Property is looking to submit its planning application in the first few months of 2019 and hoping to have its planning application considered by Newcastle City Council before the end of the year. If approved, work would be due to start on the site by 2021 at the latest.
Jeannie Kielty, community relations manager at The Banks Group, says: “Our vision is for Kingston Village to be a distinct, vibrant new community in an area that we know extremely well, and we’re keen to involve a wide range of local people in the development of our plans.
“We’re pleased to have been able to get the thoughts of so many local residents about all the different aspects of the project at the exhibitions, and to get such a positive reaction from so many of them.
“We even had a few exhibition visitors asking when the first homes at Kingston Village might be available to buy, which was especially encouraging.
“The Banks Group has a long-standing reputation for both living up to the promises we make around the developments that we take forward and delivering long-term tangible benefits to the communities in which we work, and we’re excited at the prospect of creating a thriving new community in this part of the city.”
