D-Day for Portsmouth's huge Tipner West plan as council seeks £10m to break development deadlock

Next week, the city council's cabinet will be asked to approve £10m – added to a further £7.7m taken from the £50m City Deal grant – to draw up plans for the Tipner West site but has left a decision on its detail to the full council.

Councillors will all meet the following week to discuss the project when they will be asked to approve 'a set of principles', including formally ruling out the Lennox Point super peninsula and a 'do nothing' approach.

But a decision on the principles used to shape the scheme that goes forward will be left to the full council on September 13 when it will be asked to approve 'a set of principles' which formally rules out Lennox Point and doing nothing.

'We have to remember that Portsmouth City Council is a council in no overall control,' cabinet member for economic development Steve Pitt said. 'The scheme we agree will be delivered years down the line so we need to satisfy everyone.

'What is clear though is that we can't do nothing. Flood defences need to be built and the land needs to be decontaminated. That will involve land reclamation. There's no way around it.'

The principles the full council will be asked to approve include: ruling out the Lennox Point masterplan; ruling out doing nothing, prioritising the protection of the land south of the firing range; providing a minimum of 1,250 homes and 58,000sqm or employment space (the terms of the City Deal); satisfying the requirements of regulatory bodies', including Natural England and the Environment Agency; maximising job creation; minimising costs to the council; and minimising land reclamation while providing at least a 10 per cent 'net gain in biodiversity'

Should these be agreed, plans will be drawn up over the following months before a planning application is submitted this time next year.

Four options have already been considered by the council, from doing nothing and leaving the land as is to the most ambitious Lennox Point proposal, but all have been ruled out.

The former is estimated to have a £53m funding gap, a £21m cancellation cost and an ongoing annual £3m cost for the next 10-15 years while the latter, has not progressed due political opposition.

The two intermediate schemes: one based on the 2013 City Deal agreement, which according to the council would have a £55m funding gap on top of a one-off £3.6m cost and an ongoing £5m a year annual budget requirement; and the other for 'moderate land reclamation' to build 2,000 homes which was determined to be 'reasonably likely to cost less than £46m' in total.

The cabinet report says the council 'cannot reasonably' afford any extra ongoing budget commitments, with inflation already putting pressure on its finances.

It says the two biggest schemes would be more financially viable but Cllr Pitt said these did not have political support.

'It's likely that what comes forward from the full council is somewhere in between these two,' he said. 'But what we need is the council to reach an agreement on how we proceed. We need a decision, we can't have people sitting on the sidelines.'

The Lib Dem administration had, ever since councillors voted at the end of last year to 'pause and rethink' plans for the Tipner West site, indicated that a project along the lines of the City Deal scheme would be pursued.

Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson, who made the suggestion, said this recent financial assessment of the scheme showed it would have a 'catastrophic' impact on council budgets.

'It would be very expensive,' he said. 'The land is very contaminated and flood defences are also needed. We would have to cut services to fund that.'

These financial concerns are echoed in the cabinet report which warns of a 'serious risk' of not pursuing more comprehensive redevelopment of the area.

It says: 'At present, the council is struggling with the continuing legacy impact of Covid-19 in adults and children's social care, the challenging inflationary environment across all services, as well as the increase in demand for council services from residents that are being severely impacted by the cost of living crisis.

'Pay and energy inflation alone are expected to exceed the budget by well in excess of £5m. Coupled with this are the inflationary and other pressures in the capital programme exceeding £10m.

'These emerging signs of financial distress would be exacerbated by a requirement to find further savings in the future and would therefore place at serious risk current levels of service to residents.'

Portsmouth Independents Party leader George Madgwick said he was 'very concerned' at the financial impact the project was having.

The council has already spent £20.7m on producing plans for and carrying out assessments of the site.

'If this was easy it would have been done already,' Cllr Vernon-Jackson added. 'We have records of the council as far back as 1953 mentioning the need to do something at Tipner. It is difficult but we have to come forward with a plan.'

However, the suggestion of a scheme being pursued that would involve reclaiming land from Portsmouth Harbour - and the effect it would have on protected habitats - has also prompted renewed concern from long-term opponents.

Debbie Tann, the chief executive of Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust which together with the RSPB has led opposition to Lennox Point on environmental grounds, said that the failure to take 'ridiculous' land reclamation plans off the table was 'irresponsible'.

'[The council] must stop wasting everyone’s time and money on fantasy schemes that would tear through legally protected habitats, set a dangerous precedent and run counter to the clear desires of local people and the majority of councillors,' she said. 'Just like the super-peninsula that they already rejected, this new scheme crosses immovable red lines for nature.'

Labour group leader Cal Corkery, whose motion last year put work on the Lennox Point scheme on hold, accused the administration of 'mismanaging' the project.

'It is really disappointing to see the Lib Dem cabinet resurrect their land reclamation proposals for Tipner which would see natural areas with some of the highest possible environmental protections destroyed,' he said. 'Their mismanagement of this whole project has led to a multi-million pound black hole in council finances and it will likely be local taxpayers who have to pick up the bill.'