THE NORTH of the region can learn from Teesside's more enlightened- approach to out of town retail, says Tim Catterall, partner at Sanderson, Townend & Gilbert.

"The debate between city centre and out of town retail continues to provoke controversy, but Newcastle and Sunderland can benefit from examples set by landowners and planning authorities in the south of the region to create a successful balance.

The principal retail parks on Tyneside are the MetroCentre, Team Valley and Silverlink, with another three key sites in the Sunderland area - the city centre site, Wessington Way and Trimdon.

However the largest retail park, at half a-million sq ft, is Teesside Retail Park the main out of town site in the south of the region along with Portrack Interchange.

The Focus Property Intelligence report, published in July, reveals that there is demand in Newcastle for well over one million sq ft of retail space in town and out of town from existing. and new retailers,. making it one of the most sought after locations in the country.

PPG 13, the Government's planning guidance to encourage developments Within town centres, will prevent the development of any new retail parks.

This means that landowners such as Royal Sun Alliance at the MetroCentre, Land Securities at Team Valley and Chartwell Land at Silverlink on Tyneside are constantly looking for available land to expand, or moving tenants around to maximise use of space in order to capitalisd on this demand.

Ironically, despite the demand on Tyneside, Teesside Retail Park can command rents up £5/sq ft more than many Tyneside sites,, because it has open Al planning consent.

This allows fashion retailers and other high street operators to locate on the site, where higher rents can be charged.

"With companies such as Gap, Argos, JJR Sports and Boots all looking for out Of town premises of 10,000 sq ft or more to add to their high street premises on a national basis, they will be able to turn to Teesside in the north east.

"More and more, progressive companies are appreciating the benefits of the balance between a retail park presence and being on the high street, and are choosing to be located in both.

However this attitude, particularly on Tyneside, is curbed by planning restrictions, because still very few sites have open Al planning consent.

The challenge is to persuade local authorities that increased flexibility over planningwill not damage high street retail. Teesside Retail Park's success is setting a new standard for the way that landlords can work more closely with local authorities to encourage them to be more flexible, which shows that the two sectors can work together to provide a different solution. Out of town can bring added value, rather than act as an alternative.