A MASSIVE new development on the border of Fareham and Portsmouth will help provide flood defences for hundreds of existing homes.
The Trafalgar Wharf scheme on the former Vosper Thornycroft shipbuilding yard at Portchester will provide more than 150 new homes, including a 12-storey tower block, as well as about 200,000sq ft of marine buildings for local employment on the 22-acre site.
And as part of the scheme, developers Quadrant Estates will be making a contribution of £3.1m to the Environment Agency to build flood defences all the way from Portchester Castle to Port Solent.
When complete, the structure will defend about 400 existing homes, and including the Castle Trading Estate, as well as Trafalgar Wharf itself.
Portchester East Cllr Roger Price said: ‘Generally speaking, I think it’s a good scheme.
‘The proposal for the sea defences will be extremely good news for Portchester.
‘The only downside will be the traffic generation and the density.’
Christopher Daniel, managing director of Quadrant Estates said: ‘We felt this site was fantastic with great opportunities to create a world-class development.
‘The beneficiaries are largely going to be Fareham residents, but the planning authority is Portsmouth, so we have been working very closely with Fareham as well.
‘This application is the result of several years’ productive consultation with Portsmouth City Council planners, the Environment Agency and local people.
‘If the planning application is approved it would be extremely good news for the area, providing the green light for the sympathetic regeneration of a brownfield site and creating new jobs, and much needed investment in flood defences for the site and the surrounding area.’
The scheme would require demolishing existing homes on Southampton Road and Hamilton Road. Tenants living in those homes are on short-term contracts, except one homeowner who is still in talks with Quadrant.
The outline planning application will be considered by the city council’s planning committee at a date yet to be set.
If given approval, Quadrant hopes people will be moving in by late 2014.
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