Fears grow that NHS could scupper Portsmouth City Council plan to regenerate Cosham

For several years Portsmouth City Council has been working on a plan to redevelop one corner of Cosham.

It involves the council buying up sites belonging to various public services – such as the fire station and police station – and using the land in a large-scale rejuvenation project.

While plans to move the fire service from Wayte Street to a new building on the former PCMI site off Northern Road are barrelling along, and an agreement has been reached with the police over their station, there are fears that Cosham Health Centre – which had been a central plank in the plan – could prove a stumbling block.

The One Public Estate scheme – a national programme which encourages the public services to work together on property issues – was hoped to act as a way to smooth the process. But the council now fears it will not be enough.

The owner of Cosham Health Centre has been urged to act ‘in the best interests of the public’ in response to fears it could bypass the city council and sell the building to a private developer, instead of joining in with the regeneration project.

City council cabinet member for economic development Steve Pitt said there had been ‘a lack of clarity’ from NHS Property Services – the government-owned company of thousands of NHS sites – over the transfer of the site, which could jeopardise the ‘land assembly’ project.

‘I [have] concerns around whether NHS Property Services do actually enter into that in the spirit that is intended by the One Public Estate procedure and won’t just go for whoever is prepared to offer the most money,’ he said, pointing to the NHS Property Services favouring developer PJ Livesey over the council when it sold St James’ Hospital.

‘I realise that this is going to upset them,’ he added. ‘But I don’t care, they’ve done it before and they need not to do it again. We need to hold their feet to the fire to make sure they play fairly with their public sector partners.’

The One Public Estate programme was launched by the government in 2013 to encourage bodies to work together on regeneration projects.

A spokesman for NHS Property Services said it had yet to determine the future of the health centre and said the company would ‘explore’ a council bid should it decide to sell the site.

‘NHS Property Services is currently in talks with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board and Portsmouth council to find a solution that best serves residents of the local area,’ they said.

‘In the event that Cosham Health Centre is declared surplus to local health requirements, the council will be able to officially register their interest so we can explore all options, including those supporting the local development project.’

Cllr Pitt said the other organisations involved in the multimillion-pound project, including both Hampshire police and crime commissioner Donna Jones, and the fire service, were on board.

Earlier this week the transfer of the land allowing the latter to begin building its new fire station was completed while an agreement has also been reached for Cosham Police Station.

Mrs Jones echoed Cllr Pitt’s comments on local collaboration following discussions between the two last week.

‘By working together in collaboration, Cllr Pitt and I have ensured the fire station was not delayed further and that has saved more public money from being wasted. It was the right thing to do,’ she said. ‘This will enable the council to deliver what the public needs in this area in the future.’

Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said he planned to meet both Portsmouth MPs to discuss concerns around the health centre and NHS Property Services.

He said the failure of public sector organisations to work together was ‘a real problem’ and warned that the council would not be able to compete in a bidding war with a private developer because of its intention to build more costly affordable housing on the site.

‘We have evidence from St. James’s that they really aren’t that interested in supporting other public sector entities, while the council is doing its level best to enable the fire service to have a new fire station in a much better location and taking a financial hit to do that,’ he said.

‘We are playing ball and doing the right thing. We’ve got to make sure they do the same.’