Plan to demolish former Royal British Legion building in Portsmouth is set to be refused
Members of Portsmouth City Council’s planning committee first considered the Lawish One Ltd scheme for the Sixth Avenue site in March but deferred their decision to allow discussions to take place. But despite originally recommending planning permission be granted, council planning officers will now tell the committee to refuse the application when it reconsiders the application on Wednesday (May 31).
The original recommendation had included a condition that an agreement on affordable housing be reached before final permission is approved but councillors said this needed to be reached before any decision.
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‘My view is that this site should be developed, however we have got, for the first time since the Kingston Prison development, a situation with a scheme presented to the committee that may not reach the reasonable profit level,’ councillor Darren Sanders said.
‘I understand the desire to have the negotiations after a decision has been taken, but…it seems sensible to have those discussions and then have the outcome of those discussions come back to the committee.’
Council estimates show that the 27-flat block could provide the developer a £360,000 profit – about nine per cent – with seven affordable flats and that this only slightly increased to £520,000 – or 12.2 per cent with none.
However, a report says they refused to progress a scheme with any provision and instead offered only £25,000 towards a scheme off-site.
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Hide Ad‘The [council’s financial advisor] notes “it is not the affordable housing that is making an otherwise viable development unviable, there seems little difference in scheme viability either with or without affordable housing,” the report says. ‘Your officers conclude that the applicant’s offer is not good enough and the council’s housing officer concurs.’
The final decision will be made by councillors at next week’s meeting.