Everything you may have missed from Portsmouth City Council meetings this week

IT’S been an incredibly busy week for the planning committee at Portsmouth City Council this week with five major developments given the green light.

An impressively eco-friendly leisure centre, that even boasts bee hives (yes, you heard that right), will now be built by the University of Portsmouth in Ravelin Park for the tasty sum of £53m. Everything about it will be state of the art, from its gym to swimming pool to solar panel-lined roof.

And don’t worry, this one isn’t just for students - it will also be open to the public.

Over in the city centre permission for two imposing tower blocks was granted unanimously with a few gripes about parking and lack of affordable housing along the way. Situated opposite the Portsmouth and Southsea train station one tower will supposedly attract business clientele with its hotel and the other will offer 147 flats.

Some locals were disappointed by news a three-storey school will be built to replace the Arundel Court Primary School on Northam Road.

Residents of Chatfield House attended the planning meeting on Wednesday to share their fears it would block their views and worsen the parking situation in the area.

Although councillors were sympathetic they agreed the 20 per cent extra student spaces the new-build would provide were too good to pass up. The old building will be demolished once the new one is built in its playing fields.

And finally onto everyone’s favourite subject of Brexit. On Friday council leader Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson wrote to secretary of state Greg Clark in a bid to save the 1,400 Airbus jobs in the city.

It is feared the company will pull out of the UK after a hard Brexit.

In the letter Cllr Vernon-Jackson said: ‘I would like to invite you to Portsmouth to meet people working at Airbus so that you can update them on what the Government is doing to reach a full comprehensive agreement which allows products and components manufactured in the UK free, open and unfettered access to European markets so that jobs here in Portsmouth can be sustained.’

Watch this space!