The KGIII ECP was the latest chapter to be added to theharbourview.co.uk but the main reason for its creation was that the shed being erected in 2013 to cover the slipway that existed about half a mile downstream of Market Dock by its owners, Tyne Slipway & Engineering Company Limited was nearly 3m taller than the approved plans allowed.
Not only was the shed was built nearly 3m taller than the plans allowed but South Tyneside Council did nothing about it and obstructed those including myself who had also pointed out to the Council’s planning officers that the shed was also a meter wider than any that had been given approval.
Not only was the shed taller than planned it was initially too short to accommodate the ferries that were in use in the late 90’s. It is not immediately clear from the picture below but if one look carefully one can just make out, on the picture taken of the Spirit of the Tyne in 2013, that her stem is a meter or so further up the slipway than the top end of the shed while her transom is just a bit further down the slipway than the bottom of the shed. Not only was the shed taller than planned it was initially too short to accommodate the ferries in use in the late 90’s.
I had lived for a while in Bells Flats on the quayside in North Shields which was fine while I worked at the Ministry in Longbenton but when my job was transferred to Durham House in Washington it made sense to move across the Tyne to South Shields and that was in 1999 when I managed to buy a house in Greens Place.
Until I moved to South Tyneside, I generally used the metro and bus to travel to Washington but often used a special bus from Washington Bus Station and the Shields Ferry to return home, partly because I could use the Alum Ale House as a waiting room for the ferry.
I then lived on and off in Greens Place from 1999 until 2017. I say, on on off because while I moved to Amble in 2014, I was not able to sell my place in Greens Place through normal channels and I will add at this point, that to settle in Amble I had to sell 70 Greens Place privately and that made my permanent move to Amble possible in late 2017.
During the years following 1999, I saw much wrong with shed being erected on the slipway off River Drive because it was easily viewed as it lay about 15-20m immediately below Greens Place, and I raised a complaint to the Council about its height and width in late 2013 and it was becasuse they did nothing but obscure the truth about the shed’s height and width that I created the website theharbourview.co.uk.
It was given that title because many of the people who lived in the Harbour View who also knew what was going on with UK Docks were also treated appallingly by South Tyneside Council.
When I first moved across the Tyne the slipway, now described as UK Docks Marine Services North, was no more than slipway with a few huts beside a slipway run by Harry and Audrey Wilson.
HM Land Registry, Registered Plan TY205897 shows that the Wilsons also owned a parcel of land which stretched as far downstream to what was to become the Harbour View in South Shields and became the reason for the name of theharbourview.co.uk domain registered in 2014. The actual Harbour View became a rather exclusive development located near the mouth of the Tyne with properties going for as much as £420,000 which was the amount paid for No 26 in September 2022.
A minor detail on TY205897 needs correcting and it concerns the house numbers from 65 to 72 Greens Place. No 70 where I lived, is shown as blank and should read 70 as it was just one dwelling and the pair of flats shown as 69/70 should have read 68/69 and I would like to point out that Head of Planning of South Tyneside Council agreed with me about the numbering of the houses in that stretch of Greens Place, when I protested at the over development of 71 and 72 Greens Place. No. 71 was owned by a director at that time of UK Docks, a firm based near Portsmouth Docks in Hampshire and No. 72 by one of his employees.
Please see reference to Tyne Slipway and Engineering Company Limited, above and note that Harold Wilson is now a Director of UK Docks South Shields Ltd.