View showing gateway into town from the surrounding parkland to the north

The masterplan involves 2500 new homes, a major new mixed use centre, a new university campus, two new schools and new community facilities designed around a major new public transport system that links the new development to the surrounding city and Newcastle city centre.

It is designed so that the buildings are used to define the urban network of streets and squares that form the town.  This network is primarily a pedestrian area but it also accommodates the motor car, while, at the same time ensuring that it does not dominate the form and design of the new streets.

An outline code was created, covering a series of different building types that were envisaged within the development, in order to ensure that the scheme develops a specific identity of its own.

It was the first PPG compliant scheme to be awarded planning consent.