Whitley Bay News is an independent news and information site for the North Tyneside coast and the borough behind it. We report what the record shows and we keep the practical local pages accurate, which is the half of the job most readers actually use.
Coast and river
Our patch runs from the northern boundary at St Mary’s Island down the coast through Whitley Bay, Whitley Lodge, Monkseaton, Cullercoats and Tynemouth, round to North Shields and Percy Main on the river, then west to Wallsend and Howdon and inland to Shiremoor, Backworth, Earsdon, Killingworth, Forest Hall and Longbenton. The coast and the river end of the borough do not have the same problems and we do not write as though they do.
Why we exist
North Tyneside is a single authority covering 215,000 people, and almost everything that touches an ordinary week is settled inside it: what gets built on the seafront, what a licence permits on a Friday night, what the bins cost, what happens to a parade of shops. The council publishes the paperwork, but publishing is not the same as anyone reading it. Reading it, and putting it into plain English in a couple of minutes, is the reason for this site.
How we report
From named sources, always linked: North Tyneside Council’s planning register, committee papers and news, licensing notices, police.uk crime data, HM Land Registry sold prices, Food Standards Agency hygiene ratings, Environment Agency flood and coastal warnings for the Tyne and the North Tyneside coast, and The Gazette. Where a document is unclear we say it is unclear. We do not invent a figure to round out a story, and we do not republish other outlets’ pictures.
Tips and corrections
Email hello@whitleybaynews.co.uk. Tips about a closure, an opening, a planning row or an event are welcome and treated in confidence, and if we have made a mistake we will correct it quickly and note the correction on the page.
Whitley Bay News is part of Future Business Media. We are independent of the council and of every organisation we report on.