Portsmouth sea defences: Next phase gets green light from city council but Speaker's Corner shelter may disappear

Despite some concerns around the changes, particularly the removal of the shelter at Speakers’ Corner, members of the council’s planning committee agreed to approve the changes, describing them as ‘a considerable improvement’.

Planning permission for the sea defences was granted in 2019 but the designs for this section were revised after new funding was confirmed.

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The changes include replacing the planned rock tow with shingle, which the council said would be less environmentally intrusive, cheaper and quicker to install, and a series of work to the promenade.

Alongside relocating the listed lamps and shelters, this will see new stepped terraces installed that will act as public seating and new ramps.

A planning report, published ahead of Wednesday’s (March 22) meeting of the council’s planning committee, recommended the revisions be approved.

‘The proposed changes by this application would still deliver a key and essential piece of infrastructure for the city for new flood and coastal erosion defences and contribute to the city’s wider economic growth and regeneration’, it said.

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A number of objections were made to the planning objection, including from the volunteer lifeguards who raised concerns about the raised promenade.

But most concerns centred around the proposed removal of the non-listed shelter at Speakers’ Corner. This was approved as part of the original planning application but councillors were told that the council was working to provide a replacement.

In a bid to confirm this, Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson proposed adding a condition to planning permission requiring this to take place but council officers said it would be difficult to enforce. Instead the committee agreed to add an ‘informative’ note requesting this take place.

Despite this, councillors welcomed the changes, approving them as well as granting listed building consent to move the remaining shelters and lamps.

Cllr Hugh Mason said: ‘I think this is a great improvement over what we had before in that the use of shingle and a much wider expanse will make a more attractive seafront and should do exactly the same job in preventing flooding.’

He was supported by Cllr Judith Smyth who welcomed efforts to replace the shelter at Speakers’ Corner with an ‘appropriate and modern’ alternative.