October 1st, 2025
We have issued a paragraph-by-paragraph response to Northumbria Healthcare's damaging plan to demolish the front of Berwick Infirmary apart from the tower itself.
August 8th, 2025
The application to renovate the old Grammar School/Community Centre at 5 Palace Street East, demolish two Grade II*-listed historic ancillary buildings, and build two large, out-of-keeping buildings by the Ramparts, has been approved by the planning department. This is despite the county councillor asking the application decision to be called in and made by the local area committee. See our Grammar School web page for more information.
August 5th, 2025
After just a few minutes of debate, NCC's Strategic Planning Committee has voted to approve the new Maltings application. A heartfelt thank you to all who supported us in our campaign and who formally objected and signed our petition. We will be commenting further on how Berwick's heritage - and indeed its soul - came to be marginalised so badly, but meanwhile please see the notes on our Maltings page, our speech at the committee, and our statement.
July 25th, 2025
The NCC planning officer for the Maltings application has recommended that permission be granted for the proposal, meaning that it will almost certainly be waved through by the strategic planning committee, which will make a decision on 5th August at 4pm. The officer's report can be viewed in the meeting Agenda, not yet on the planning portal.
May 3rd, 2025
We have released a report analysing the Maltings proposal, The New Berwick Maltings: A Flawed Proposal.
April 11th, 2025
Historic England have supported the Maltings proposal - predictable after their demand for pitched roofs to be banished. They have added insult to injury with a caution about the manner in which the signage on the south side is illuminated!
April 1st, 2025
Berwick Town Council have voted unanimously in favour of the Maltings proposal, for their advice to the strategic planning committee. Unfortunately this isn't an April's Fool. Their 13-word comment makes no mention of any dissent in the town, despite the fact that they convened a meeting to gauge public opinion and over 70% of speakers were against the design.
March 28th, 2025
The Victorian Society has objected to the proposal: "The introduction of such a disruptive building would completely unbalance this conservation area, harming significance and a key view of Berwick looking East. The design is inappropriate to the Conservation Area; it is not a responsible answer to the character and appearance of Berwick-upon-Tweed. In conclusion, the Society recognises the need for an updated and accessible community hub, but objects to the design and form of the proposal. It is both inappropriate and harmful to Berwick’s Conservation Area."
March 22nd, 2025
We have uploaded two sample objections to the Grounds for objection section of our objection page.
March 12th, 2025
The application is available to the public for viewing and comment: 25/00792/CCD. We will shortly be updating our web site with more information about how to object.
March 11th, 2025
The rear elevation of the final design has been revealed - see the first image on our Maltings page - with a huge new sign on the roof.
February 28th, 2025
We have added a blog where we will post articles and also our social media posts for those not on Instagram or Facebook.
February 10th, 2025
We have added a timeline page for the new Maltings development, so you can see the story so far.
January 26th, 2025
You can now see our 3D visualisations of the new builds at 5 Palace Street East.
January 8th, 2025
A revised set of plans for the old Grammar School redevelopment, 24/03632/LBC, are now available here on the planning portal as of 2025-01-08. For the back yard, the two new buildings are almost identical to the original plans except the huge garage has been turned into a house. We will be updating the web site soon, but our concerns are the same as before: loss of heritage assets, and more importantly, the degradation of the historic, open landscape on this section of the walls.
December 19th, 2024
We have made a short video, Starforth's Tower, to celebrate 150 years of the Berwick Infirmary.
December 5th, 2024
We have added a page about the hospital pods and how their alien presence in Berwick's historic townscape might be mitigated with a change of colour.
November 21st, 2024
The stonemason's yard car park proposal has now been WITHDRAWN for the second time. We hope that an appropriate use can now be found for the land and the stonemason's workshop, taking advantage of the historic location and wonderful views from the land for the benefit of residents and visitors alike. Thank you to all who helped make the argument against the banality of a car park. Sense has - for now - prevailed!
November 10th, 2024
Good news on the stonemason's yard car park application: the planning officer has recommended REFUSAL of the application, citing the change.org petition and the 28 objections. We now hope that when the strategic planning committee meet to discuss the application, probably on 3rd December, they will agree with the planning officer.
October 12th, 2024
Remedial work on the old Grammar School at 5 Palace Street East appears to be taking place - except on the WWI hut and Speirs building. Their broken windows have not been boarded up. It seems that these Grade II* listed buildings are being left to rot to facilitate their replacement and future development in the back yard. At the very least, their neglect indicates a presumption of their eventual demolition.
September 14th, 2024
NCC's Environment and Design department (Planning Services) has objected to the car park application. The response cites insufficient information about impacts on ecology, including demolition and construction methods, risk of contamination disturbance, how surface water will be disposed, and confirmation of no new lighting. If one tree remains, the response predicts its loss due to impacts on the tree's root protection zone. Concern is also expressed about biodiversity loss and uncertainty about how this will or even can be made up, especially when the site is owned by a third party.
Natural England say they may need to object if they don't receive information about "demolition procedure and subsequent car park construction focusing on measures to avoid and/or mitigate pollution of nearby designated river environment to inform a suitable Construction and Environmental Management Plan", and also a Habitats Regulations Assessment. "As submitted, the application could have potential significant effects on the Tweed Estuary Special Area of Conservation and the Tweed Catchment Rivers – England - Lower Tweed and Whiteadder Site of Special Scientific Interest."
September 11th, 2024
The NCC's Built Heritage and Design officer has objected to the car park application. He cited a number of failures by the applicant to gather sufficient information, even after being advised to do so. In the slightly odd planning jargon: "From the information provided we consider the impact on the setting of designated heritage assets would be less than substantial harm. The direct impact on the Tweedmouth Conservation Area would be less than substantial harm. The impact on the mason’s workshop as a NDHA would be total loss." In other words, there would be a significant level of harm. There was no indication before we contacted the officer in question that they had been asked to comment, as with Historic England.
We have updated our video to provide a visualisation of the putative car park, plus an additional view of a good outcome, and the video is now available on YouTube.
We now have an official NCC petition. If you live, work, study or use services in Northumberland, then please sign the official Northumberland county council petition. You can view the number of signatures in this list of petitions.
September 10th, 2024
Please watch our new car park application video.
We have learned that the car park application may go in front of the strategic NCC committee, and then would not go to the Local Area Planning committee.
We have written a detailed rebuttal to the Chamber of Trade's arguments in their supporting comment for the car park application.
September 8th, 2024
There is an extension for objections to the car park proposal for Bridge End, Tweedmouth. The new date is 26th September 2024, according to the case officer.
September 7th, 2024
Over 400 signatures have now been collected for the car park petition on the change.org site! Thank you, everybody. We have also been (briefly) on Greatest Hits Radio (Borders), and the Northumberland Gazette has carried a piece about the petition.
August 25th, 2024 - URGENT: The car park proposal for Bridge End
Please help stop this terrible proposal at the Tweedmouth end of the old bridge. Click here for more, including pictures, and sign our petition if you can.
March 15th, 2024
The Grammar School is for sale and has a closing date of 20th March 2024. If a sale is forthcoming, we wish the new owners luck and urge them to restore the WWI Army hut and Speirs building to keep these historic and unusual buildings for Berwick and future generations. (Now sold to Michael Guthrie.)
April 13th, 2023
Our leaflet campaign and Facebook page are attracting some media attention.
The Northumberland Gazette has written about our petition at change.org/savethehuts, which now has over 200 signatures.
Greatest Hits Radio (Scottish Borders and Northumberland) broadcast a brief interview with Julian Smart on 12th March.
March 23th, 2023
We attended the North Northumberland Local Area Planning Meeting on 23 March 2023. Julian Smart gave a speech, which you can read here. The application was granted permission. Here's our reaction:
"We are disappointed: great harm to Berwick’s heritage, a conservation area and enjoyment of the Town Walls has been permitted on the pretext of saving the old Grammar School. As we have always maintained, the over-large new builds proposed for the back yard are unrelated to preserving the main building and completely unnecessary when two rare, century-old buildings could be refurbished and reused, preserving the conservation area in the process.
In future, those walking the newly signposted England Coast Path along the Town Walls may be surprised to find that what was a beautiful, unspoilt view of a historic townscape has been marred by a brash new development, motivated principally by the need to store canoes. What they may not know is that to build them, a rare WWI Army hut and an even rarer 1908 Speirs classroom will have been demolished, a move condemned by the Victorian Society, the 20th Century Society, and Historic Buildings and Places.
It should be of great concern to all who live in or visit Berwick that our heritage, so vital to tourism, is highly vulnerable to the whims of developers. The views of concerned local residents and those of respected heritage organisations have been pushed aside, and our alternative proposal ignored. We shall, however, continue to raise awareness of what Berwick and its visitors are about to lose."
This statement and a shorter form are available in ODT and PDF formats.
Our report on the meeting can be found here.
March 13th, 2023
Several of us attended the Town Council Planning Meeting on 13 March 2023. We gave a talk, which you can read here. The Town Clerk gave a monologue dismissing our points, there was no debate about these or any other important points surrounding the application, and the committee voted to recommend application consent to the County Council local area planning committee for 23rd March. You can read our brief summary of the meeting here.
March 12th, 2023
We have heard that the planning consent has been resiled: previously we assumed only a condition was to be added. So it seems the full decision will be made again on 23rd March.
March 3rd, 2023
We have written an alternative plan, 'A Sustainable Alternative', for the back yard at the Grammar School. We show that a conservation-based approach can be cheaper, more sustainable and in everyone's best interests.
We have also made available card models of the Edwardian huts for anyone to make, along with models of the two proposed buildings for comparison.
February 24th, 2023
The planning committee is having to discuss this application again on March 23rd, in light of the fact that the Council failed to take into account an important consderation. Paragraph 204 of the National Planning Policy Framework: states that the Council should take “all reasonable steps” to secure the development (and the associated benefits relied on by the Council in permitting the Applications) when justifying the loss of heritage assets on a site. That is, the Council should try to prevent a situation in which the huts are demolished without the replacement development actually going ahead. Presumably this will be done by adding another condition.
The application has been approved by the County Council with one abstention. The plan includes the demolition of the huts and replacement with new builds. However, the Council has issued a note to the applicant to consider reuse of the huts, which is weak but better than nothing. The Council also imposed a condition such that the new builds cannot be started before the first resident has taken up their place in the refurbished main building. This may give the listed buildings a reprieve, albeit one during which they will not be maintained and therefore will be at risk of collapse.
A further condition prevents people not associated with the BYP from using the garage block for motorcycle maintenance, although noise would still be permitted outside of that constraint.
We will continue to explore ways in which the conservation area can yet be protected from the new builds.
January 18th, 2023
The Victorian Society and 20th Century Society have now both objected to the application, arguing for the retention of the two ancillary buildings. See the application documents for more information.
January 11th, 2023
The decision will be made on January 19th, 2023, at 2 pm on 19th January, in the Main Hall of St James's URC, Pottergate, Alnwick, NE66 1JW. Please attend if you can! More details of the meeting can be found here.
December 27th, 2022
The decision has been postponed again, due to the Georgian Group contributing a document in which they deplore not being contacted by the applicant - as they legally should have been been - and recommend withdrawal and resubmission of the application with more detailed information.
The earliest the decision can be made is now January 19th, 2023, since that is when the next planning meeting is scheduled.
We hope that the 20th Century Society and Victorian Society, also statutory bodies that should have been consulted, will also add their opinions before this date.
As mentioned below: it seems likely that it will get the go-ahead, possibly with a proviso that only the Berwick Youth Project may use the site. This will still degrade the conservation area, wreck views from the walls, and result in the destruction of the Grade II listed historic ancillary buildings: the Word War I army hut and Edwardian classroom. It may also result in the loss of residents' parking spaces in Palace Street East.
November 28th, 2022
The decision will finally be made on December 22nd, at 2pm, in Alnwick (venue TBC). The Northumberland County Council calendar entry is here. Unfortunately it seems likely that it will get the go-ahead, possibly with a proviso that only the Berwick Youth Project may use the site. This will still degrade the conservation area, wreck views from the walls, and result in the destruction of the Grade II listed historic ancillary buildings: the Word War I army hut and Edwardian classroom. It may also result in the loss of residents' parking spaces in Palace Street East.
If the plan is green-lit, we will do all we can to let the world know what is being lost and protest any heritage destruction on the site.
We will be giving a 5-minute presentation at the planning meeting. The more residents attend, the better, so do please come if you can.
July 27th, 2022
We are getting information that the planning decision slated for 18th August may be delayed in order to allow more time for the county conservation officers to consider the history of the huts. We will update this if and when we have more information.
July 24th, 2022
Check out our new Berwick Heritage Instagram account. We're posting pictures of the Palace Street huts, and other huts and unusual structures in and around Berwick.
July 19th, 2022
Three of us made presentations to the Town Council Planning Committee meeting on July 18th. They could not immediately reach a conclusion as to whether to make an objection.
The final decision will be made in a county council meeting in August, possibly the 18th, in either Alnwick or Berwick. We will nominate one of us to make a 5-minute presentation.
July 14th, 2022
The preservation of the huts, especially the WWI Armstrong hunt, is strongly advocated by Major Lance Thornton, Executive Officer for The King’s Own Scottish Borderers Association, based at the Barracks. As he says, buildings that seem of no value at one time, are regarded as valuable heritage a few years later. His suggestion is to restore the military hut to its WWI layout and make it into an attraction!
The county planning officer Jon Sharp has added a note to the planning portal recommending refusal of the application. However, this could be overruled at committee.
July 13th, 2022
A Berwick Town Council planning meeting is due to be held on Monday, 18th July at 6pm. We will be allowed up to 5 sessions of 3 minutes each to put foward our views. Please come to this meeting if you are at all able to, and let the council know the strength of feeling that exists about this application - there's no need to speak.
The venue is the Northern View Community Centre (the Jubilee Centre) in Highcliffe, Spittal, TD15 2JL. There's parking at the front and back, and the meeting is in the function room - turn to the left when you come through the entrance.
To get there from the Tweedbank Retail Park/the leisure centre, at the roundabout go down Billendean Terrace towards Spittal, and just before you go under the railway bridge, turn right into Spittal Hall Road. This eventually turns into Highcliffe, and you turn left into the Community Centre.