Tipner West: Portsmouth City Council issues plea for unity to break stalemate on plans for new homes

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SENIOR Portsmouth city councillors have issued a plea to opposition groups to come together in a bid to break the deadlock over contentious plans for a large-scale redevelopment of land in Tipner.

At a special meeting of the council’s cabinet on Thursday, councillors agreed to send a ‘set of principles’ for consideration by the full council which it hopes will lead to the creation of a scheme that can meet its approval.

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‘We have included every bit of information, in this report, that the full council needs to be able to make a grown-up decision to move forward,’ Councillor Steve Pitt, whose portfolio includes economic development, said.

‘It was absolutely vital that this didn’t look like a set of proposals which was trying to steer people in a particular direction. What it is is about creating a grown-up space within those parameters that we can work with in order to move this project forward.’

How the Lennox Point development at Tipner West would have looked
Picture: Portsmouth City CouncilHow the Lennox Point development at Tipner West would have looked
Picture: Portsmouth City Council
How the Lennox Point development at Tipner West would have looked Picture: Portsmouth City Council

Uncertainty over the future of the project, with little progress having been made since councillors agreed to ‘pause and rethink’ the Lennox Point super-peninsula scheme in October last year has prompted concerns it could damage the council’s reputation.

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Lennox Point, the most grand version of the plan for the area, was to be a £1bn car-free development which would see 67 acres reclaimed from Portsmouth Harbour. The aim was to help meet government housing targets and create more land for business. It was envisaged that Lennox Point would be divided into four main districts, with a variety of housing from family homes to high-rise residential development alongside 'the largest green maritime employment park in the country'.

Smaller versions of the plan were also suggested for the area which would not have seen any land reclaimed.

‘This project will have been on pause for a year next month,’ Megan Carter, the council’s head of major projects said. ‘The implications of this uncertainty have far-reaching consequences for the council.’

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Phase One of Lennox Point
Picture: Portsmouth City CouncilPhase One of Lennox Point
Picture: Portsmouth City Council
Phase One of Lennox Point Picture: Portsmouth City Council

Opposition to the reclamation of land from Portsmouth Harbour has been spearheaded by the RSPB and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust on environmental grounds with a petition, signed by tens of thousands of people, urging the council to abandon its ambitions.

But the Lib Dem council administration has said any scheme would involve a degree of land reclamation and that a project of some kind had to take place to build flood defences in the area.

‘The land at Tipner West has been derelict for many decades and it is not a beautiful gateway for the city,’ council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said. ‘But we can’t not do anything and anything we do is going to cause some disturbance to the area and involve some level of land reclamation.’

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Cllr Vernon-Jackson had highlighted the potential for a project along the lines of the City Deal scheme, which won £50m of government support, could be feasible but council assessments have found this would have a £55m funding gap, on top of a one-off £3.6m cost and an ongoing £5m a year annual budget requirement.

Living Street at Lennox Point
Picture: Joe MunroLiving Street at Lennox Point
Picture: Joe Munro
Living Street at Lennox Point Picture: Joe Munro

This is in addition to £20.7m already spent by the council on studies and drawings.

Other options, including Lennox Point, a ‘do nothing’ position and a ‘moderate land reclamation’ scheme have also been formally ruled out by the council.

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‘When you’ve got four options in front of you, none of which make any financial sense whatsoever you don’t choose to be shot in one of four different ways,’ Cllr Pitt added. ‘What you do is you go around find a different alternative and that’s what this report does.

‘It sets down very clear criteria and parameters within which that work can now be progressed and it must be done, at this point, cross-party.’

His position was echoed by councillor Lee Hunt, the cabinet member for planning policy, who had originally opposed the Lennox Point – named after the Duke who created Goodwood racecourse – scheme when it was first tabled in 2014.

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He said redevelopment of the land would ‘help secure Portsmouth economy into the future’.

‘In the same way that Ian Gibson brought the ferry ports and wealth creation to Portsmouth and Leo Madden the Spinnaker Tower and increased shopping and tourism in Portsmouth, this council has an opportunity to help secure prosperity, homes, jobs and to protect the habitat for wildlife,’ he said.

‘Anyone who votes against these things or causes yet more delay is increasing the cost of building flood defences.

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I hope very much that when this is debated in the council, that other councillors, perhaps looking for political gain, do not gamble the houses and businesses of hundreds of people.’

The principles agreed by the cabinet to be put forward at a forthcoming extraordinary full council meeting are:

- Ruling out the Lennox Point masterplan

- Ruling out doing nothing

- Prioritising the protection of the land south of the firing range

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- Providing a minimum of 1,250 homes and 58,000sqm or employment space (the terms of the City Deal)

- ‘Satisfying the requirements of regulatory bodies’, including Natural England and the Environment Agency

- Maximising job creation

- Minimising costs to the council

- Minimising land reclamation while providing at least a 10 per cent ‘net gain in biodiversity’

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The full council meeting was due to be held on Tuesday but has been postponed after the death of the Queen.

The cabinet also agreed to set aside a further £17.7m in funding, £7.7m of which is from the City Deal grant, to help draw-up formalised plans for a scheme based on these with the aim of submitting a planning application in about a year’s time.