Residents Meeting

22 October 2025

Springwell Village Social Club

Present: Angela Silk Chairperson

Liz Reid Vice-chairperson

Mark Curry Treasurer

George Martin Committee Member

Pauline Cooper Committee Member

Deborah Gallagher Committee Member

Keith Nairn Committee Member

Lesley Pickup Committee Member

In Attendance: Marion Pugh Northumbrian Water Group (NWL) Customer Rep.

Paul Wood NWL, Projects Manager Donna Rawlinson NWL, Amanda Hunt NWL

Gareth Giles Mott McDonald Bentley (MMB) Contracts Manager

Bethany Oakley MMB Customer Liaison,Drew Robertson MMB

Katie Wood Planning Consultant, Ashcourt (Thompsons)

Elliott Virgo Development Regional Manager, Ashcourt

Stephen Dixon Network Parking and Road Safety Manager, Sunderland City Council

Apologies: Christine Brown Secretary, Martin McKeever Committee Member

Alison Nairn Committee Member

Dorothy Trueman Ward Councillor

Jimmy Warne Ward Councillor

Approximately 75 people, including agencies and committee members, attended the meeting in person.

attended via Zoom.

For the first time a virtual link was set up and residents attended via Zoom

1. Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting were proposed and seconded & approved.

2. Ashcourt (Thompsons of Prudhoe)

a) Katie Wood and Elliott Virgo explained Thompsons is owned by Ashcourt. They gave an overview of their plans to reduce dust, bunds and heaps on the Quarry site.

They intend to reduce the main stockpile (next to the shed adjacent to Railway Close) by 4-5 metres by the end of November. The delay on that has been because they are waiting to move the material to the site of a flat roof building, which they want to demolish. Unfortunately, this is an electricity substation so they had been waiting for the electricity company to disconnect/decommission it before demolition.

b) They intend to reshape the bunds and will seed the side of mound that faces properties nearby.

c) They will use some tarmac on site which should reduce dust and noise.

d) There should be a visible reduction in the stockpiles inside the Quarry as they now have 2 crushing lines. This should enable stone to be processed more quickly and thus removed from the stockpiles.

e) There is a new washing plant for vehicles on site – now being commissioned. The previous one was not working well.

Discussion.

a) Residents asked about whether Thompsons had been awarded the contract for removal of material from the flyover. Ashcourt said this had not been confirmed, but did admit they would be removing material from the building next to the flyover. When asked, Ashcourt Representatives could not be sure which sites would take this material – but some would come to the Springwell site. When residents raised concerns that the Springwell site is full and has no capacity to take any more materials, Ashcourt said demolition relating to the Flyover would not start until February and so they expect by Christmas their current stockpiles would be reduced and under control so they don’t think the mounds will rise.

b) In response to questions about timescales Ashcroft’s representatives said the Bunds would ‘shaped up’ in a month. There was to be a new compound staff car park and Tarmac road )round the site ?

c) In response to resident queries, Ashcourt Representatives confirmed that (Ashcourt) HGV should not come through the village and advised residents to photograph or note number/licence plates of any (Ashcourt) HGV seen doing this.

d) Residents raised concerns re dust and not having seen as many cleaning vehicles? Ashcourt Reps say they have reactivated the cleaning contract and operatives inspect daily and jet wash. They also clean vehicles on the site.

e) A resident asked if evergreen trees could be planted on bunds. However at previous meetings residents did not wish trees to be planted so they could see what was going on.

f) Residents were assured there would be flower seeds planted on bunds.

g) Ashcourt would like to improve communication between themselves and the residents and a group ofpeople are invited to meet Ryan Molloy. Ashccourt’s representatives were encouraged to attend SVRA meetings on a regular basis to facilitate better communication

3. Traffic

Stephen Dixon, Council traffic management attended. He is aware there are issues with parking and speedin the village but warned that if they take any action, there will usually be an impact on residents. He invited questions from residents.

Discussion

a) Residents asked if speed cameras could be used. Stephen said the council received lots of speed camera requests from various communities. The issue with speed cameras is funding as currently the revenue from fines goes to the police and not the council as they would prefer, so they could use this for traffic/road improvements. There is a new partnership in North East now so this funding issue, and hence councils use of speed cameras, might resume??

b) A resident suggested placing another zebra crossing at the other (infant) end of the school. This could slow traffic and enable children crossing. However, Stephen pointed out the putting a crossing there would affect residents eg parking by their homes due to the 25m zig zag zone.

c) A mobile speed van was requested. Stephen said this was run by Northumbria Police and had tight criterion for deployment/use. However, he would investigate).

d) Introducing more speed humps were discussed. Stephen said that, as Springwell Road is on a bus route, most of the calming methods that could be installed such as cushions do not affect (and hence slow) most average family cars, which are bigger than they used to be. It was also mentioned that there used to be more calming measures in the village, but these had to be removed because of the various impacts on residents.

e) Difficulties pedestrians have had waiting for traffic to stop at the Zebra crossings was raised. Stephen said zebra crossing are no longer a favoured crossing because of pedestrian/driver conflicts over stopping. A resident mentioned the chicanes seem the only thing that slows traffic. Better signage was discussed for these and the roundabout.

f) The zebra crossing by the community centre was discussed. Its proximity to the bus stop and the effect of that upon visibility of pedestrians crossing was discussed. Stephen suggested a pelican crossing might be an option which could provide more visibility and that he would look into this.

g) Parking around the school was raised and residents requested a camera car came to the school. Stephen said that over 120 schools had requests in/were monitored. He is not sure when last camera car came to the school so he will enquire about this.

h) He also said that parking outside of schools can actually serve to slow the path of traffic. Councillor Trueman said the fencing off of common land at back of Coronation terrace may be having an impact on parking. A suggestion of using a rear entrance to the school was made and the vice chair is going to raise that with school as a governor, but warned that this was just shifting the parking problem to Beech Grove.

i) A request was made by the vice-chair as to whether anything could be done about the parking on Fell Road.

4. Solar Farm

There is no update on the progress of the solar farm appeal. An Inspector still hasn’t been appointed to review the appeal. The fields on the land proposed have been ploughed and seeds sown. The path which was ploughed up has been reinstated – although it is not as wide/good as it had been previously. The planning officer Public Rights of Way Officer has been informed of this.

5. Seldom Seen Park

Volunteers and have cleared the raised beds and paths. There has been a community chest application for funding to purchase plants and tools etc for the seldom seen park.

6. Update on Reservoir NW

Donna Rawlinson from NW said following the last meeting lots of discussions had taken place within theteam regarding the issues raised. She led a presentation about what they have discussed in response to these issues, what schedule of work is planned, what landscaping will take place. This included pictures and projections of how the site is expected to look after backfilling and landscaping.

Donna addressed the following issues raised in the last meeting at her presentation.

a) Thomas Street This road in Eighton banks has been resurfaced.

b) Dust suppression They looked at the methods they were using, but concluded they were using the best method.

c) Mud on road They have a full time roadsweeper on site to clean this.

d) Mount Lane The council will repair/resurface this road when the work is complete? The Lane will be shut – partially on one side for a week. They will try to minimise disruption to residents

e) Backfill This will continue until Christmas. Photos were provided as to what they expect the reservoir to look like once the backfill has been completed and the slopes grassed/planted.

f) Security Fence NW must have a security fence and can’t remove it. They have brought the fence in at the side. On North and West its position remains same. The standard height of a reservoir fence is 2.4m. In response to concerns NW have agreed it will be 1.8m. The materials have been ordered so this should happen. Donna showed an example of the green fencing selected by residents overlooking it. It is green. Each panel width is 2.5m. It should be put up in January 2026.

g) Roof – Why not grass? The industry standard has noted that grass can cause water ingress through the roof affect its stability. Residents on the nearby estate had been consulted on their choice of gravel colour.

h) Road – Regarding questions about the necessity of the extra access/site road – this will stay. It allows the complete backfilling to be completed quicker and is necessary for maintenance access.4

i) Using Grasscrete (grassed concrete) for this road is not possible because it is not strong enough.

j) Colour of tarmac – NW is willing to consider other colours – and for residents to have a choice. However, residents would have to reach an agreement on their preferred colour.

k) Landscape The same species of trees/hedgerow would be planted as was removed plus other native species. For every tree removed it would be replaced with 3 as long as the landowner agrees. Most planting will be on the side on the inside of the reservoir fence. There would be over 20 trees planted outside of the fence. Planting will begin in February.

l) Donna has taken advice from Drew Robertson NW who has explained that young trees and shrubs adapt better than older ones. There are higher survival rates: Mature trees lose roots when transported, Trees fall in wind. Mature trees get more damaged when transplanted. NW showed pictures of the projected tree growth around reservoir after 4-5 years by which time they should grow 4-5 metres high, and after (40yrs) by which time they should be fully mature.

m) The grass slopes and site would be planted with native wildflowers. Landscaping/grass??? maintenance would take place twice a year.

n) Sustainable Underwater Draining System (SUDS) – NW have reshaped SUDS after listening to feedback and new plans of its new shape were shown.

o) Finished result – A couple of pictures of their projections of the appearance of the reservoir site were shown.

p) Community Launch Lastly NW are devising plans to engage the community more. Current thoughts have been to engage children in schools eg by building bug hotels, or dedicating trees. They are considering adding benches to the land adjacent to the reservoir – where most of the trees will be sited.

q) Completion date – They originally expected to be off the site in January, but this has had to be extended until end of April. This is because of issues they discovered with the integrity of structure where cracks had developed due to freeze thaw effect. Repairs have now been completed so the work is now resumed.

Discussion

a) Residents raised their concerns about the slope of the reservoir when it is finished particularly to the slope at the front of mount lane which is between 1 in 2 and 1 in 3. NW said they can’t reduce the slope at the front as they don’t have space. Donna said she would ask colleagues to look to see if the incline on the sides could be reduced.

b) One resident asked if the material of the roof was the same as the walls, and it is. It was suggested that if the walls could be covered with grass that surely roof could be too.

c) NW are going to liaise with residents regarding their choice of tarmac colour.

d) Concerns were raised about possible erosion of materials from the slope. NW said drainage and other measures including the SUDS would mitigate this and that this would be monitored regularly.

e) A query was made about whether the same planting principles on the reservoir would be applied on the pipeline (eg x4 hedgerow and x3 trees). This was confirmed where landowners agree. Tree planting would begin this winter. Donna only knows of 1 landowner who does not want NW to plant on their land (pipeline off Peareth Hall Road) – but it was noted landowners are under no obligation to agree planting.

f) Residents queried when Broom Court Bund would be removed and the date – end November was given, as NW need to sort the pond first.

g) Concerns were raised about pot-holes and mud on the road and that the road sweeper is ineffective – often spreading rather than clearing mud.

h) Concerns were raised about weeding (of the bund) and of rats around Broom court & nearby – which residents felt was directly linked to the work being undertaken.

i) NW is going to get people out to investigate the cause and find a remedy.

k) A resident asked about the life-span of the reservoir and was told 100 years.