Debate over whether hotel should be built off A27 roundabout
MEETING Gary Medlow from Fasset explains the case for the hotel while residents at the meeting, inset, listen and take notes. Pictures: Ian Hargreaves (120620-1 and 3)
RESIDENTS called on a council to refuse plans for a new hotel and restaurant in Havant at a meeting last night.
Community leaders said the 80-bedroom Travelodge hotel and 300-cover restaurant would lead to congestion and noise pollution and was too large for Bosmere Field, a green space near the Langstone roundabout off the A27.
But Gary Medlow, managing director of Fasset Ltd, which runs Langstone Technology Park and is proposing the development, said a budget hotel was vital for the business park to survive in an increasingly competitive market.
Views for and against the development were expressed as residents, councillors and developers gathered at Havant’s Public Service Plaza to discuss plans before a formal planning application is submitted.
The meeting heard the hotel would be two-storey and there would be 155 parking spaces.
The restaurant would be a farmhouse-style ‘Cloverleaf’ restaurant, run by brewery Greene King.
Gareth Brown, from Langstone Village Association, said: ‘Without question noise pollution would be a major issue, particularly to the houses in that area.
‘The noise pollution which at the moment stops at 5pm or 6pm would go on until 11.30pm or midnight.’
He said the development would not benefit Havant town centre.
‘It needs hotels inside the centre,’ he said.
Angela Armstrong, chairwoman of Langstone Residents’ Association, said: ‘The feedback from our members is the scale is far too large for this location.’
But Mr Medlow said: ‘I truly believe a budget hotel is a much-needed business park asset as well as being good for our tourism and the local economy. The creation of 100-plus jobs cannot be sniffed at.’
He said the business park brought millions of pounds to Havant every year by employees visiting the shops.
‘You have got to be able to provide the necessary infrastructure for these very demanding companies,’ he said.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 5 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
JennyFletcher
Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 02:37 PMI wondered why the new so called 'community newspaper' PO9 was so complimentary to Fasset and presented residents' opinions as trivial. A little research on Twitter revealed the answer. David Guest, Havant Councillor is the owner and apparently the editor of PO9. My feeling is that we don't have a chance of winning against such obvious and blatant bias. On the day of the meeting, David Guest re-tweeted a comment from his friend Gary Medlow who is MD of Fasset. The hotel and restaurant plans have only 155 parking spaces for the hotel, its staff and restaurant visitors. We already have to tolerate people from the Technology Park parking their cars on our doorsteps because business owners won't lease sufficient space for them. Now it seems that this nuisance will be extended to 247. It is already hard enough to turn out of Woodbury Avenue onto the main road. In peak times it is a nightmare trying to turn right towards Havant and the motorway. Traffic lights were ruled out in the last proposal for Bosmere field, so that isn't an option. Langstone residents now want an assurance that any cronyism between councillors and Fasset will not opinions being heard and this inappropriate proposal being defeated. Bosmere should be sown with British wild flowers and furnished with a few beehives. Or how about covering it with solar panels. Not very pretty, but they won't make a noise or cause extra traffic OR potentially pollute a stream feeding into Langstone Harbour which is an SSRI
griffon
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 03:29 PMResistance is probably futile given the land owner, Hampshire County Council, has already praised the development ahead of the application. Havant will be expected to knuckle under, give objectors the brush off and do Fasset's bidding. The protestors would be better advised wringing a few concessions and contributions from the developers or studying the local properties for sale market.
snapdog
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 02:41 PM@2 the site is not an eyesore! it is a field full of grass and weeds..... and both the langstone and the travel inn offer reasonable rates they all have to be competitive!
sw33n3y
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 02:07 PMl don`t live in or near Havant, so have no axe to grind, but l know the location of both the proposed development and of Langstone village, and to my mind there is a large degree of Nimbyism at work here. The Site is an eyesore, often with large amounts of rubbish strewn around its` boundaries; as for congestion, some commonsense with a revised road approach from the flyover and roundabout would alleviate this considerably. Havant does need a budget price hotel - The Langstone is too expensive for everyday commercial users, whilst The Bear is too run-down and remote from the two principal CommercialIndustrial areas of the Town, and in any event is proposing to get rid of its` car-park. As for the travellers, with the high degree of sympathy shown to them by Hampshire Police, they should have no trouble in locating and entering land belonging to some unfortunate individual!
snapdog
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 01:42 PMThere is a travel in not 5 minutes up the road, or they can stay at the Langstone, if they come by car what's the problem with travelling 5 minutes to where your going to be working... And Greene King need to plough some money into the pubs and dump of a hotel in east street, up grade them.... and where are the gypsy's going to park if they build on that field, or is that why it has been left to run wild so that it is not so inviting?
Page 1 of 1
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.