North Tyneside Council is rolling out the red carpet in a bid to attract more filmmakers and TV production companies to the borough.
Elected Mayor Norma Redfearn CBE and Chief Executive Paul Hanson have signed a Filming Friendly Charter in partnership with North East Screen, an agency working to develop and champion the North East as a film-friendly region.
The charter recognises the positive economic and cultural benefits hosting filming activity has on North Tyneside and aims to maximise those benefits and bring more visitors to the area.
This year alone, North Tyneside has hosted the BBC’s Northern Justice, Ambulance and Angels of then North, as well as ITV’s Vera, a Royal Mail commercial and the feature film, Blue Jean.
The charter represents a commitment by the council to continue to support crews while on location in the borough, providing advice on local services and access to council-owned sites, and to collaborate on publicity with North East Screen.
The Elected Mayor said: “North Tyneside has often caught the eye of location scouts, who have approached us for access to our stunning heritage sites, award-winning coastline, and green spaces.
“The screen industry has brought millions into our local economy, created jobs, and raised our profile nationally and internationally, and our colleagues already do a great job by helping to smooth the process and supporting them to get what they need when they visit North Tyneside.
“We welcome every opportunity to showcase North Tyneside, on the small screen or the big screen, and we are delighted to reaffirm our commitment to the Filming Friendly Charter.”
North East Screen Industries Partnership (NESIP) was formed by Combined and Local Authorities from across the region to level up the regional film and TV industries by more than doubling its 2019 share of the UK production market and delivering an annual economic impact to the regional economy of £88m.
Following the publication of the BBC Across the UK strategy the partnership signed an MOU with the BBC in September 2021, with the BBC making a commitment to spend a minimum of £25m on production and skills development in the North East over the next five years.
NESIP will jointly invest £11.4m over the same five-year period to deliver a new Screen Industries Development Programme maximising opportunities for significant growth within the screen industries sector and developing a thriving and sustainable ecosystem
Alison Gwynn, Chief Executive of North East Screen said: “We are working closely with the North East Screen Industries Partnership and the BBC to encourage and promote filming across the North East. We want all parts of our region to benefit. It is important that each local authority area is committed to welcome production crews and make the process of filming as smooth as can be. North East Screen will support them to do this.
“The economic and tourism benefits of a production filming in our area and the jobs it can create for local crew, as well as local businesses across the supply chain, is something we don’t want any part of the North East to miss out on.
“We are delighted that North Tyneside Council has signed up to the charter and look forward to working with them to encourage more filming in the borough.”
