Coverage
MEP consultants in Newcastle upon Tyne
MEP design from SDE’s Newcastle office at Collingwood Buildings, to the Building Regulations 2010, approved through Newcastle City Council building control.
BUILDING CONTROL
The statutory route here
Newcastle projects follow the Building Regulations 2010 and the Approved Documents, with approval through Newcastle City Council building control or a registered building control approver.
The first thing worth establishing on a Tyneside project is which authority it actually falls under. The conurbation is split by the river and by several council boundaries: the south bank is Gateshead, the coast and the river's north bank downstream are North Tyneside, and sites a short distance north or west of the city are in Northumberland. A project described as being in Newcastle is regularly not in the Newcastle City Council area, and the submission, the fees and the local planning policy all follow the boundary rather than the postal address.
The classical centre — Grainger Town — is largely listed and sits within a conservation area, which puts the same constraint on services that applies in any protected centre: plant location, flue and ventilation terminations, and anything that alters a facade all become consent questions rather than purely technical ones.
HOW WE WORK
SDE has an office in Newcastle, at Collingwood Buildings on Collingwood Street, a few minutes' walk from Newcastle Central Station and inside the Grainger Town conservation area described above. It is the practice's base for the North East and for English work generally, and it means site attendance in the region is local rather than a trip from Scotland.
The Musselburgh office is a little over ninety minutes away by train on the East Coast Main Line, so the two work as one team rather than as two.
The recurring pattern on the university and hospital estates in the city is refurbishment inside an operational building. That changes the design problem: the constraint is rarely the plant selection but what can be isolated, when, and what temporary provision keeps the rest of the building running while it happens. Those questions belong in the strategy at concept, not in the contractor's method statement at Stage 5.
AUTHORITIES
Local authorities in this area
QUESTIONS
Common questions
Who deals with building control for a project in Newcastle?
Newcastle City Council building control, or a registered building control approver appointed instead. Check the boundary first: a site on the south bank of the Tyne is in Gateshead, and sites downstream or to the north can fall under North Tyneside or Northumberland, each of which has its own building control and its own local planning policy.
How do listed building constraints affect MEP design in Newcastle city centre?
Much of the classical centre is listed and within a conservation area, so where plant sits, how flues and ventilation terminate, and any alteration to a facade all need listed building consent as well as a technical solution. The services strategy is best developed alongside the heritage consent, because a strategy that assumes roof plant or external condensers may simply not be consentable.