Government will get regeneration project off the ground - minister

THE Government is "serious" about getting a huge Newcastle regeneration project off the ground, a senior minister says.

- By DANIEL HOLLAND

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander was in the city yesterday morning to launch a new development company tasked with building up to 40,000 homes over the next decade on disused railway land, including the derelict Forth Goods Yard near Central Station.

That Network Rail-owned site, part of the wider Forth Yards area to the west of Newcastle city centre, could be transformed with up to 600 houses, a multi-storey car park, and an elevated pedestrian and cycle route likened to New York City's High Line park.

It is one of four developments named as priorities for Platform 4, a new Government development company formed through a merger of London and Continental Railways Limited (LCR) and Network Rail's Property Development team.