Plans to invest tens of millions of pounds in the creation of a new community to the north west of Newcastle are set to go on show to local people later this month.
Banks Property, part of the County Durham-headquartered Banks Group, is putting forward proposals for a development of up to 1,000 new family homes on a 49-hectare site to the west of Brunton Lane, the road between Dinnington and Kingston Park, which is allocated in the Newcastle & Gateshead Core Strategy for residential development.
The scheme, which is to be known as Kingston Village, will also include a new primary school, a number of retail outlets, and the creation of large areas of high quality open space including a village green giving it a unique community identity and benefiting biodiversity
It will also provide a network of public footpaths and cycle ways, including new links to nearby Kingston Park, and support the development of other local infrastructure and improved public transport to benefit new and existing residents.
Banks Property will be hosting three community exhibitions at the end of the month to introduce its plans to local residents, answer their questions and gather their input on the different aspects of the village proposal, which will then be fed back into the planning application that the company will eventually submit to Newcastle City Council.
The first exhibition will be held between 3pm and 7pm at the Memorial Institute in Dinnington on Tuesday 27 November, with the second one taking place from 130pm to 530pm on the following day at Kingston Park Community Centre.
The third exhibition will then be held between 11am and 3pm at the Great Park Community Centre on Roseden Way on Thursday 29 November.
A follow-up event will be held early in the new year to highlight how the feedback received has been factored into the planning application, which is scheduled to be submitted in early 2019.
Banks Property is then hoping to have its planning application considered by Newcastle City Council before the end of the year, with a view, if it is approved, to commence work on 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, and the facilities and infrastructure that are included in our plans are designed to reflect this approach.
“We’re keen to involve the widest possible cross-section of local people in the development of our plans, and the exhibitions we’re holding will provide detailed information of what this project will entail.
“The Banks Group has worked in this area on a range of different projects for many years, and we have 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.
“There is a clear and increasingly pressing need right across North East England to increase the available supply of quality homes, a need which Kingston Village will help to address, and we are certain that there will be great demand for homes in the new community we are looking to create.
“We’re excited at the prospect of creating a thriving new community in this part of the city and are looking forward to revealing the detail of our ideas.”