Derelict former industrial buildings near Gateshead's quayside could be flattened to make way for a major apartment development.
Bellway Homes has submitted the very first stage of proposals to pull down derelict buildings on Fletcher Road to replace them with 100 one and two bedroom apartments.
The application site is located to the south of Fletcher Road, with a railway line to the south and the east, and the existing Ochre Yards development to the north and west.
The remains of the former Greenesfield Railway Works are on the north of the site. These remnants are considered to be of local importance.
However, before it can officially submit these plans it has to ask the authority if an Environmental Impact Assessment, or EIA, is required.
EIA's make sure that the environmental effects of a proposed development are properly considered.
They provide local councils with information about certain types of project, enabling them to decide whether permission should be granted and what conditions need to be put in place to reduce a scheme's impact.
However, these assessments can create a large amount of extra work, which delays projects and runs up extra costs.
In a letter to Gateshead Council Bellway argued that the development is too small to need an assessment.
It said: "As the proposed development is for 100 residential apartments, substantially less than the 150 dwellings referenced in the regulations and is situated on land of significantly less than five hectares the development is not considered to be an EIA development."
The document also claimed that the proposals are "unlikely" to cause any significant environmental impact.
