Gateshead Quays arena latest as 'constructive' talks held between mayor and Reform council leader
The stalled attempts to build a new concert venue on the Gateshead Quayside hit the headlines again last week when the town's new Reform council leadership expressed reservations over the plans
The North East mayor says that “constructive” talks have been held with Reform UK over the prospect of a new arena on the Gateshead Quayside, after the town’s new council leadership cast fresh doubt over the stalled project. Labour’s Kim McGuinness and Gateshead Council’s Reform leader Nick Allan clashed last week, after the latter described the heavily-delayed Quays vision a “vanity project”.
Coun Allan warned that his administration would not get on board with the scheme unless the mayor came up with a “better argument and better financial package” for the development, which she promised £24 million for earlier this year in a bid to finally get it off the ground. But tensions over the contentious regeneration bid appear to have eased somewhat, in public at least, with both sides speaking positively about their latest discussions.
Ms McGuinness told a meeting of her North East mayoral authority cabinet on Tuesday that the modern concert venue “still needs to be delivered” in order to prevent big acts like Taylor Swift skipping over the North East on their tours. Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service afterwards, she added: “I have had a really constructive conversation with Coun Allan about how we move that project forward. We know we need to do something about Gateshead Quays, we know this project has dragged on for far too long.
“We know that the people of the region really want it. The reaction to recent stories and headlines about it from people has been to really reiterate that this is exactly the level of ambition that people want to see. I think Gateshead [Council] see that. They were quite clear that no decisions have been made and I am quite clear that what we need to do is push on and deliver the arena that the people of the region and the people of Gateshead deserve.”
Coun Allan has previously aired a raft of concerns about the arena project – including worries about how Gateshead residents will get to the site, that it could be “inferior” to a nearby Utilita Arena that is in line for £65 million of upgrades, and that concertgoers might be more likely to spend their money in Newcastle rather than Gateshead.
But he said on Wednesday: “We have met with the regional mayor and the developers. We have agreed to work together in the interests of the residents of Gateshead. No decisions have been made at this point, we want what is best for the economic and social development for Gateshead Quays and the borough.”
The proposed arena would have capacity for up to 15,000 fans and is earmarked for the derelict land between the Glasshouse music centre and Baltic art gallery. Factors including Brexit, Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, and increased energy and raw material prices have been blamed for the long delays in it being delivered.
While a publicly-funded £23 million multi-storey car park for the development has been built in nearby Hawks Road, construction on an arena itself never began. The vision for the site has been scaled back to drop a proposed international conference centre.
The mayoral authority wants to procure an investor-operator for the arena by the end of this year, with several major companies said to be interested, having promised that further £24 million to progress infrastructure works that it is hoped will “derisk” the project.