Tipner West: Plans for hundreds of new homes at Portsmouth site under discussion as designs for the site are considered

The council agreed a “set of principles” last year in a bid to overcome environmental concerns that stalled the project. Since then a cross-party steering group has met regularly to consider options for a viable scheme.

Council leader Steve Pitt said designs were “following the path” this work had set and that he hoped a detailed proposal would win support.

“We have continued to work cross-party and collegiately and this is the next step in following these principles,” he said ahead of the discussion of a cabinet report next week (October 3) that sets out a refined version of these promises.

This includes a pledge that any development would include a minimum of 814 homes and a maximum of 1,250, alongside at least 58,000sqm of “marine-focussed” employment space.

“Everyone’s feedback is critical in shaping what we do,” Cllr Pitt added. “This has included the [Hampshire and Isle of Wight] Wildlife Trust and RSPB who we have been engaging with positively.”

• Back to the drawing board for what will be built

The two charities have been highly critical of the council’s ambitions for the land around Tipner West, particularly due to plans for significant amounts of land reclamation from the designated harbour. Their petition against the scheme was signed tens of thousands of times.

This opposition forced the council to abandon its original £1bn “super peninsula” project which would have seen as many as 4,000 homes built.

But their have been warnings around delays to progressing a development for which the council has already spent £23.5m on. The cabinet report says each month of delay increases this by £160,000. Funding so far has all been covered by a 2013 govenment City Deal grant.

“Should the revised principles set out in this report not be agreed and the project be unable to progress, then it is likely that the terms of the City Deal will not be met and the council could face the significant financial burden of having to pay back the City Deal funds in a single year,” the report says.

“If this situation arises the £23.5m of project expenditure to date would need to be funded from savings as yet unidentified in the council’s budget which would have a significant impact on the future delivery of council services.”

It also warned that any delay to the project would have implications on the new Local Plan – a pre-submission draft of which is expected in March.

More than a dozen potential design ideas have been considered so far by the steering group and a shortlist of six remaining proposals is still being considered.

These included a limited development based on recommendations from the RSPB and wildlife trust which would include 815 homes and 58,000sqm employment space without the need for reclamation as well as a 1,142-home project with more significant land reclamation to provide a “working quayside”.

But Cllr Pitt said it was “highly unlikely” that any one design is progressed and that a mix of ideas was likely to be what the council progresses to a planning application.

“What I’ve made absolutely clear [since becoming council leader in May] is that what we do at Tipner West has to be ‘nature first’ and that’s a priority we’re working towards,” he added.

Regardless of the final proposal, the council is facing a significant funding shortfall. The cabinet report says the smallest funding gap of any of the six schemes was expected to be about £50m.