MP demands public funds not used to pay for development stopping expansion of St James’ Park

St James’ Park is part of the Newcastle Central parliamentary constituency, MP Chi Onwurah representing her city centre constituents, including the occupiers / owners of Newcastle United.

Chi Onwurah has been a brilliant campaigner (along with other local MPs such as Ian Mearns) on behalf of Newcastle United fans, as well as campaigning on many other issues that impact both on her constituents and the general public.

No surprise then at all, that the Newcastle Central MP has once again stepped up.

A brief recap of what happened previously, though I understand most of you will have heard it many times before.

When Sir John Hall and Freddie Shepherd were in control, Newcastle United bought (in the form of a very long lease) land directly opposite the Gallowgate End. This was with the express intention of at some time in the future that land helping to expand the capacity of St James’ Park.

At the time one idea was to partner with an American casino operator. Plans were drawn up by the club that showed it would be possible to expand St James’ Park to at least 60,000 via a much bigger Galowgate End of the stadium, which would be part of a development that would include and be linked to, a massive casino with hotel as well etc etc. In 2005 the UK Government had passed legislation that would allow a number of ‘mega casinos’ around the country and this was the potential plan / siting in Newcastle. In the end the Government scrapped the idea before any of these ‘mega casinos’ could be built.

The club was then of course sold in 2007 and as part of the deal to buy Newcastle United, Mike Ashley took control of a number of pieces of land owned by NUFC.

This piece of land opposite the Gallowgate was one of them, Ashley ended up selling the land from the club to himself, then later sold it on to developers for a personal profit.

Despite numerous objections to the plans from Newcastle United fans / local people / other interested parties, Newcastle City Council approved a development to include retail, student accommodation, hotels etc.

Years later, still no work even started on building anything.

Obviously the economic climate and other factors possibly not going in favour of the development swiftly going ahead.

Whilst in the meantime, the developers went into administration, further complicating / delaying matters.

Moving right up to the present day and the latest mooted idea is to use millions of pounds of public money to help subsidise getting this development underway at last.

However…if this land opposite the Gallowgate End is ever built on, as per these plans, it is widely accepted that this would mean no chance of at any time in the future there being a major expansion of St James’ Park. As realistically it is the Gallowgate End where there’s the only scope for significant growth in the capacity, with the East Stand having a listed building so close behind it.

The development of this land would be bad enough BUT for it to be now set underway thanks to the use of public funds, when so many of the public are against it happening, would be shameful.

Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah via her Twitter account – 31 January 2023:

‘Many constituents have contacted me with concerns on the proposed use of public funds for the Strawberry Place site and the impact on Newcastle United

I hope use of public funds to develop land previously earmarked for St James’ Park expansion is rejected.

My letter to the Mayor

Good luck to Chi Onwurah and hopefully sooner rather than later, the Newcastle United owners will go public, with plans on how they intend to develop a much bigger capacity at St James’ Park. Which could potentially include the club buying back this land opposite the Gallowgate.