Work at long last begins on redevelopment of gateway to Portsmouth

Diggers have moved on to land in Tipner east, an area left derelict for decades, to churn it up so it can be prepared for future housing development.

The land, left of the M275 on the approach to Portsmouth – around the former site of the dog racing track, has planning permission for hundreds of new homes.

But nothing has been done for years as a schedule of works was needed to decontaminate the site.

That work is now under way and is expected to take at least a year. Steve New, director of the Tipner Regeneration Company, which owns the Tipner east land being worked upon, welcomed the progress.

Mr New said: ‘It’s a step forward. All of the American landing crafts that sat there for years have gone and the buildings there have been demolished. There’s a big push now to get on with things. This is a very specialist piece of work. Workers are digging up the boundary of our land; and all around the outside of the site, a membrane is being put in.

‘They are also removing any obstacles, so it’s all about getting the land ready for decontamination and development.’

Mr New added: ‘I don’t know how long exactly this will take, but I think it’s a programme of works scheduled in for a year.

‘So it’s going to take quite a long time to clean the land, but it’s definitely something that’s moving forward and there will be lots of progress in 2017.’

The progress comes despite Radian pulling out of a deal to build 80 properties and a commercial hub on the former PD Fuels site, in Tipner, owned by the Homes & Communities Agency.

John Cass, chairman of Tipner and Stamshaw Neighbourhood Forum, has recently revealed a deal has now been struck to build a temporary road to take heavy construction traffic travelling into Tipner via Stamshaw had been agreed with Tipner west landowner John Henry Pounds.