POLICY H7
DEVELOPMENT IN THE COCKHILL, COMMONGATE, GUBEON WEST AND SALTWICK PLANTATIONS WILL NOT BE PERMITTED. IN OTHER PARTS OF THE TRANWELL WOODS AREA PROPOSALS FOR NEW HOUSING DEVELOPMENT WILL BE REQUIRED TO COMPLY WITH THE ALL FOLLOWING CRITERIA:-
i) NO SIGNIFICANT ADVERSE IMPACT UPON THE LANDSCAPE, THE GENERAL ENVIRONMENT, INCLUDING SITES OF ACKNOWLEDGED CONSERVATION IMPORTANCE AND THE EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE.
ii) A QUALITY OF DESIGN AND USE OF MATERIALS WHICH MAKE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE LOCAL BUILDING TRADITION.
iii) PROPOSALS FOR DEVELOPMENT WILL BE REQUIRED TO RESPECT THE CHARACTER OF EXISTING DEVELOPMENT AND OF THE WOODLANDS, AND SHALL INCLUDE A SCHEME FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE WOODLANDS WITHIN THE PLOT.

5.19.1 In the past the Council and the County Council successfully provided for and controlled the provision of executive homes in the Tranwell Woods area near Morpeth, through the Development Control Policy Statement of 1987. The sites allocated have now almost all been developed and the Council is being pressed by developers to reassess the policy and to incorporate the results into Local Plan policies.

5.19.2 The special circumstances at the time the 1981 Policy Statement was prepared are now superseded or of much less significance. There is virtually no scope for a major extension of housing into undeveloped woodland without serious adverse environmental impact and all the woodlands are designated as Sites of Nature Conservation Importance (See Policy C9). Furthermore, Local Plan Policy H6 identifies a variety of sites appropriate for special executive housing which provide an adequate supply for the Plan Period and include a site for 35 dwellings at the former Stannington Children's Hospital, less than a mile from Tranwell Woods.

5.19.3 The plantations comprising Tranwell Woods total some 80 hectares and there are few woodlands of this scale and character in this part of Northumberland. Their ecological importance is recognised in their designation as a Site of Nature Conservation Importance (SNCI). The Policy Statement recognised that low-density housing existed in the Wellhill Plantation and the eastern part of the Gubeon West Plantation. It provided for development to take place in the Gubeon North Plantation and on individual plots within the Gubeon West Plantation.

5.19.4 The Saltwick and Commongate Plantations are narrow woodland belts where development would be both obtrusive and have a serious adverse effect on the integrity of these woods. The undeveloped part of the Gubeon West Plantation is also narrow and it has a high water table resulting in a more marshy habitat and is accordingly considered inappropriate for development. The Cockhill Plantation is remote from and unconnected with the existing developed area. Although parts of it are more open in character, development here would not constitute an appropriate extension to the Tranwell Woods settlement but would be a separate, isolated and sporadic new development.

5.19.5 The council therefore considers that the Saltwick, Commongate, Gubeon West and Cockhill Plantations are inappropriate for new residential development and should be retained undisturbed. Elsewhere in the Tranwell Woods area it is considered inappropriate to positively identify new sites or increase the density of development and the policy therefore sets out criteria with which proposals for development will be required to comply.