Feasibility Study for the Industrial Area - Part 1 (PDF 5 MB)

The key limitation of the area appears to be the lack of specific
support at the regional level (One NorthEast, Regional
Development Agency) and the wavering promotion of the marine/
offshore cluster concept:
- lack of active marketing;
- poor high level investment in enterprise, research and
development and incubator poles, for example, by
comparison with other UK areas.
The effect appears to be that of not adding value to the industries
of the sector that are located in Walker. The practice, however,
equally unfavourable to industries of different sectors that are
located in the area and feel their businesses are not valued.
Other disadvantages of the area are its poor local accessibility,
the topographical constraints, the restricted yards, and the poor
physical image of the core area.
3.3 Current Property Situation
site, which came on the market during the study, with a further
6.8 ha (16.8 acres) whose leases expire on or before 2011. There
is a concentration of available or potentially available land in the
central part of the study area, where constraints (topography,
access, different aspirations of the residents) are more acute.
The availability of sites opens up the opportunity of upgrading
parts of the area, improving the infrastructure (particularly
access), and of reviewing land use / occupation policies.
3.4 Site Marketing
The City Council directly manages and markets the industrial
Walker Riverside. The area is easily identified through a web
search, in the Competitive Newcastle website, where appropriate
contact details are given. Similar contacts are provided on site,
on signposts. The area is well known in the industrybecause of
its shipbuilding tradition.
The City Council is freehold owners of approximately 75% of the
overall area, which is largely let out and subject to ground leases.
The City Council, thus, has a degree of control over the area,
particularly where the leases are about to expire.
The March 2003 Supply and Demand Study descibed around
50% of the premises as“pre World War 2”, and less than 30% as
“Modern”. The proportion has slightly changed, with a few more
premises recently developed and a few older ones cleared and
demolished (see Fig. 3.3).
Rental levels are in line with those achieved in other industrial
locations across Tyne & Wear. However some units on Fisher
Street achieve lower rents, and one recent scheme (UK Land)
struggled to find tenants and none of its occupiers has
associations with the marine/ offshore sector.
From the site visits, however, it is evident that there is a good
proportion of active and growing industries in the Walker
Riverside:
- Duco and Wellstream are growing businesses;
- Most medium and small sized industries of the sector have
recently weathered a contraction and are now forecasting
expansion within their premises or within the area itself;
- The companies most closely linked with shipbuilding are
experiencing a decline in activity and have reduced the
number of staff. They are, however, preparing themselves
for future diversification.
- Most recently built units are fully occupied, even if taken
up by businesses not related to the marine and offshore
sector.
Nevertheless, it is a time of change in the Walker Riverside: in
2002 (prior to the suspension of work at A&P Tyne) 45% of
businesses and 83% of the land had associations with the
marine/offshore sector. This proportion might change according to
the future of the Neptune Yard and the A&P site (see Fig. 3.1).
There is no high level marketing strategy at the international,
national and regional levels. The Regional Development Agency,
One NorthEast, has not included Walker Riverside on North
Tyneside within its priority commercial areas (see Chapter 5).
The Regional Economic Strategy refers to the Renewable Energy
Centre for Excellence in Blyth and the AMEC offshore industry
Visitor Centre. Closer links with these initiatives could be
developed for more effective marketing of the Walker Riverside.
3.5 Likely Demand
Manufacturing and shipbuilding are in decline in Tyneside. Many
areas close to the city centre have been recently successfully
converted into residential or leisure/ cultural areas.
There are still large areas of the Tyneside River Corridor that are
available for industrial development. The Property Supply and
Demand Study had identified approximately 60 ha of available
land on the north bank and 23 ha in the south bank (2002). This
figure is likely to increase if the whole of A&P Tyne, Swan Hunter
and AMEC sites came to the market.
It also has to be remembered that the marine/ offshore sector is
a global operation, and as such, there is a global choice of
potential sites.
Incentives and political support are likely to be required to attract
either substantial marine work in the existing yards or another
global player of the scale of Duco or Wellstream to Walker
Riverside. In this event, the established and well knit fabric of
related industries of the area would be sufficient to generate
momentum for the concept of cluster to come to life again.
Clear branding, marketing and infrastructure investments are
likely to be required, particularly given the long term weakness of
shipbuilding activities in the area and the need to refocus the
sector (see Section 2).
There are large vacant sites, a number of smaller ones, and
some of the leases are about to expire (see Fig. 3.2). Vacant
land amounts to a total of 24 ha (59 acres), including the A&P
12 Colin Buchanan