Tipner West project in Portsmouth faces crunch meeting about its future

The report will ask councillors to agree a ‘set of principles’ to allow a detailed scheme to be drawn up over the coming months.

Senior councillors said it was originally going to be considered at a specially-convened meeting in August but this was pushed back into September in response to opposition concerns that it would be difficult for many to attend during the summer break.

An extraordinary meeting of the council was instead arranged to take place last month in a bid to speed up progress on the project but this was also cancelled, due to the death of the Queen.

The report is now on the agenda of the meeting scheduled to take place on Tuesday (October 11).

Speaking last month, cabinet member for economic development councillor Steve Pitt said he hoped the full council discussion would break the deadlock in finding an agreeable scheme.

‘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,’ he 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.’

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 a year ago, has prompted concerns it could damage the council’s reputation and was increasing costs.

Councillor Lee Hunt, the cabinet member for planning policy, said any further delay would exacerbate these issues.

He said: '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 council has set a target for having a planning application submitted this time next year.