Developers get bad press two weeks running

Unhappy Focus Team members outside the site
that developers want to put housing on

It's not often that a company makes front page newspaper headlines (in the wrong way) two weeks running, but the developers of Elswick Park have done just that. First they were up in court for not complying with requirements of their planning permission to carry out landscaping works. They got off with a conditional discharge (that's legal language for a rap over the knuckles) because they suddenly rushed in and planted some trees at the wrong time of year - they'll probably die. Why didn't they just do their planting when they were supposed to? You can read more on the Gazette story here.

Now they're trying a land grab on an area that was promised to be for public use, the space facing Kennedy Way at the front of the development. They want to maximise their profits by building more housing on the area. It was supposed to be allocated for a community centre, as the Gazette explains here. Money being put before communities again - developers seem to think that they can change the rules as they go along.