6.18.1 In addition the following sites, which have the benefit of planning permission are not yet fully developed.

Hadston Industrial Estate 2.1 ha
Pharmacia Factory, Whalton Road,Morpeth 20.4 ha

6.18.2 The Council's principal economic development objective is to utilise Morpeth's attractive character and setting in order to attract new employment opportunities and investment in industrial development. Morpeth is a market town, well located on the national and regional highway network, the main east coast railway line and close to Newcastle International Airport and the Tyneside Conurbation.

6.18.3 Morpeth is an extremely popular settlement with a high level of community and social infrastructure. The town has been identified as one of the "Northern Lights" report - A Development Agenda for the North, 1990, which contained a comparative study of similar settlements throughout the north of the country. This report highlights Morpeth's quality of life and potential for economic growth and development. Principal allocations in Morpeth are at Fairmoor and these are described in the Morpeth settlement chapter.

St.Mary's Hospital, Stannington

6.18.4 St. Mary's Hospital, approximately 3 miles to the south-west of Morpeth, has recently become surplus to Health Authority requirements and the buildings are vacant. The hospital was a major institution in the open countryside with an overall land holding of some 62 hectares, including open space around the buildings, recreational land, peripheral woodland planting and a sewage treatment works.

6.18.5 The Council acknowledges that the hospital site has the status of a 'brownfield' or previously developed site which provided employment for several hundred staff when it was in full occupation. Accordingly it considers that its reuse should be a mix of employment and related uses. In order to reduce the need for travel, however, the Council anticipates that some housing at the site, directly related to new employment uses, may be appropriate. Such a development may include houses with workshops attached, or telecottaging enterprises, but will be subsidiary to the employment use of the site.

6.18.6 The Council has recently undertaken an Urban Capacity Study, as required by PPG3 (Housing) 2000, and revised its planning allocations as part of the Study outcome. In sequential testing the site has been identified as being unlikely to be required for housing purposes during the Plan Period. Any subsequent decisions would be taken in the context of the review of the Council's development and regeneration strategies, the Local Plan and the availability of brownfield land at that time, the progress towards meeting Structure Plan housing targets and the sustainability of alternative sites, when measured in sequential testing.

6.18.7 There are existing industrial estates at Pegswood and Hadston and an existing workshop site at Linton. Nevertheless the Council is keen to increase the variety of industrial site provision in this part of the Borough. In view of the uncertain future of the colliery and to provide land for local service industry the, Ellington Colliery complex is identified as a site suitable for a variety of employment purposes in a mixed development scheme.

Sites in Rural Areas

6.18.8 The Council wishes to promote employment in rural areas throughout the Borough where there may be no buildings suitable for conversion, or where such buildings have been redeveloped for residential use. The Council has identified two such opportunities to provide new workshop development, at Longhorsley and Scots Gap, and sites have been identified which the Council considers suitable for this purpose. These sites are assessed in detail in the relevant settlement chapter.

6.18.9 Recently the farm complex at North Whitehouse Farm Stannington has been converted to provide a range of workshops and offices, providing employment opportunities in a rural location. The site has been fully developed and in order to sustain the impetus for growth, additional land is allocated for employment purposes there.