Gosport: Developers keep trying to build flats in Forton Road - but bins and parking are problematic

The recommendation from the planning officer’s report at Gosport Borough Council’s regulatory board meeting was to grant permission to build five, one-bedroom flats with five parking bays on land next to 189 Forton Road.

But the board meeting on April 30 voted unanimously to turn this second application down, after the first was refused by the council and at appeal.

The planning reason given in the decision notice said the plans had no provision for future storage requirements for waste and recyclable materials. The board said this would result in putting bins in “parking spaces”, reducing the number of car parking spaces and adding to existing parking pressures for the area. The notice also said there was no provision for visitor parking to the site in an area with limited parking capacity.

Leader of the council Peter Chegwyn (Lib Dem, Forton), who is not part of the regulatory board, said it might cost taxpayers’ money in defending the plans should it go to appeal again, but “our conscience would be clear”. He said he would rather a government planning inspector vote it through against the wishes of 39 residents than the council voting against its electorate.

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During the meeting, chair Steven Hammond (Lib Dem, Bridgemary) said: “Do we do right by the residents or right by the council?”

Cllr Chegwyn said the lack of bin storage space in the plans for future waste recycling needs, implemented by the government, would mean residents will leave their bins in parking spaces. Bins are already left out on the pavement because residents would be pulling bins through their houses to get them into their back gardens.

Applicant Trevor Lazenby, of Lazenby Property (Bemisters) Ltd, sought to build a detached single and two storey building to create five flats with car/cycle parking and bin storage, application number 25/00051/FULL.

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The site is on Forton Road at the junction with Alma Road and Reeds Place. It is currently a vacant plot with a brick wall, around 1.8m high along its boundary with Reeds Place and Alma Street. It had billboard hoardings on it that had been taken down.

The first application was put forward in 2023 and refused because of inadequate visitor parking which would put pressure on car parking in the area.

It went to appeal and a planning inspector refused the plans because it could not determine if the number of new occupants could reach nitrate neutrality and not affect the conservation area.