Plans to build Portsmouth road for lorries faces fresh setback

Portsmouth City Council finally agreed a parcel of land running parallel to the M275 could be used as a route for lorries to take to commercial land in Tipner.

It followed years of campaigning by local residents, led by neighbourhood forum chairman John Cass, fed up with heavy traffic coming down their roads.

The stipulation was the road can only be in place until September 2017 so that it doesn’t get in the way of wider long-term plans to regenerate the area.

It must also be built and up and running by next month.

But landowners behind the plans now say those conditions aren’t fair – and nothing will happen unless the council changes its position.

Steve New owns land in Tipner east and has been working with Tipner west landowner John Henry Pounds to get the road built.

Mr New, director of The Tipner Regeneration Company, said: ‘It took us 18 months to get the consent for the road and there was a lot of going back and forth. Now we have the planning consent, but the conditions on it are too stringent. It makes it impractical to build the road.

‘It’s frustrating for the residents. It was their wishes for this road to be there. It makes sense.

‘As it stands, it’s not going to happen.

‘But I believe we can go back to the council and negotiate and say, this won’t get built by next month, and we need it in place longer than two years, because the cost of building it would be very expensive.’

Yet Tory council planning boss Luke Stubbs says a new planning application would have to be submitted if developers aren’t happy – which would delay the plans further.

Cllr Stubbs said: ‘I have heard nothing from Tipner Regeneration Company or its representatives about this.

‘Any conditions that form part of a planning application can only be rectified by submitting a new application.

‘The council and council officers can’t just amend these things off their own back.

‘As far as anything else is concerned, the council is prepared to look at it.’