Portsmouth car-free 4,000-home project at Tipner West renamed Lennox Point after Goodwood racecourse aristocrat

Portsmouth City Council is hoping to start construction work on the 4,000-home super-peninsula development in summer 2024.

Unveiled as Tipner West, the major project has been rechristened as Lennox Point, named after the third Duke of Richmond, Charles Lennox.

The duke was Master General of the Ordnance in the government of George III and in retirement ordered the construction of Goodwood race track.

At that point a military general and politician, he was in charge of protecting the south coast and ordered a survey that eventually led to the creation of Ordnance Survey.

Two gunpowder magazines were built in 1796 on the site under the duke’s orders.

A marine employment hub is also planned - and is aimed at slowing the city’s decline in shipbuilding since BAE Systems axed 940 Portsmouth jobs in 2013.

The site should ‘provide thousands of skilled marine and maritime jobs,’ the council said.

It will be named Phoenix Quay, after HMS Phoenix, a naval firefighting and damage repair training establishment at Tipner between 1946-1993.

Project lead Megan Carter, senior regeneration manager, said the naming after Charles Lennox was a ‘fitting tribute’ to the site’s history.

She said: ‘Towards the end of last year we held focus groups with residents to discuss potential names for the development on the Tipner West site.

‘Our focus groups decided on Lennox Point - after (the duke) who pioneered the earliest version of the Ordnance Survey and was responsible for the fortification and protection of the south coast.

‘It was important to the residents, and to us, that we remember the history of the Tipner West site, and therefore naming it after Charles Lennox seemed a fitting tribute to the history of the site.’

READ NEXT: Man, 40, arrested as more than 10 police raid property in Fareham

Delays due to Covid-19 have pushed back the council consulting on its Local Plan, including the super-peninsula. It will take place this summer.

Knock-on effects mean the project is delayed by 12 months overall, with a public consultation on the masterplan due this autumn, followed by an exhibition in spring 2022.

Planning applications are due to be submitted by summer that year, with a public inquiry in autumn 2023.

Ms Carter said: ‘Like everyone, we were impacted significantly by the pandemic in 2020 with some areas of work unable to progress as quickly as we'd have liked due to the impact on workforce and resource.

‘This has meant that some of our timeline - including our planned public consultation for early 2021 and the council's Local Plan consultation - has had to be postponed, but our team has been working throughout the pandemic, developing the proposals for the site.’

‘Although we are disappointed that the delays have impacted on the deadlines we had originally laid out to the public, it is right to wait for the Local Plan to ensure that the masterplan - which will showcase what Lennox Point might look and feel like - can be adapted in line with public consultation on the Local Plan.

‘This will ensure we are proposing the best development possible, and can showcase our plans for an innovative, sustainable car-free neighbourhood and marine employment hub at Lennox Point.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news online - as well as fewer adverts, access to our digital edition and mobile app.

Our trial offer starts at just £2 a month for the first two months.