It’s back on the table – the Portsmouth Water ‘New HQ’ planning application proposed for Solent Road.
- Background – The original planning application
- The changes published on 6 July 2023
- To comment on the amended planning application
- The wider picture
Background – The original planning application
On 18 May 2021, Chancerygate (Erdington) Limited, submitted a planning application for the construction of a new Portsmouth Water HQ office building on the land immediately behind and overlooking the Bosmere Medical Practice in Solent Road. The company’s longer-term intention is to sell the land occupied by the current head offices to a housing developer to enable the development of 135 new homes accessed from West Street. To fund this ‘master plan’, the original planning application also proposed four industrial units on the land opposite the entrance to the medical centre.
Over 650 Havant residents, staff and patients of the medical practice and customers of the Boots pharmacy raised comments on the planning application, objecting to the impact that this proposed change would have on the safety and welfare of the staff and patients. The focus of public concern was the proposal to share the site entrance from Solent Road, an access which has been a cul-de-sac dedicated to the medical facilities since the facilities were constructed twenty years ago. Given that the surgery times dictated by the NHS contract coincide with peak Solent Road traffic flow, access to the surgery car park can already be difficult enough for the elderly, the sick and the infirm during peak morning and afternoon hours. The proposal to route through traffic to the new developments posed an unacceptable risk to staff and patients.
Little has been heard since a meeting on 30 November 2021 between the Bosmere Medical Centre, Chancerygate, Portsmouth Water and Chris Lyons, the lead planning agent, then working for Tetra Tech. Since that time, it appears that Chancerygate may have found that the cost of alleviating flood risk issues impacted the viability of the commercial units in the current economic climate and the project went back to the drawing board.
The changes published on 6 July 2023
On 6 July 2023, the part of the original application development specifically intended for Portsmouth Water kicked off again, with Portsmouth Water submitting a series of amendments to the original planning application:
Apart from the obvious removal of the commercial developments from this plan, there is little change. The traffic generated by Portsmouth Water’s staff, suppliers and visitors will still route through the existing entrance to the medical centre and the pharmacy.
In the covering letter submitted with the new planning documents, Portsmouth Water’s planning agent suggests that the concerns raised regarding visual impact, additional traffic and flood risk meant that in the current market conditions, the commercial units were “no longer commercially viable”. The agent hopes that by amending the plan to show just the Portsmouth Water HQ, the reduction in building and associated traffic movements “will be welcomed by local residents and the medical centre.”
If you were one of the many who raised objections when the application was originally raised, you might want to reconsider the impact of the amended design. Remember that Chancerygate retain control over the land formerly proposed for the commercial development and there is a high likelihood that the commercial units would simply be deferred to a future planning application when market conditions are more favourable for the developer. By effectively splitting the original development into two parts, Portsmouth Water and Chancerygate appear to be simply playing the limitations of the planning process to achieve the original objective.
If that corner of the land is genuinely not viable for commercial development, then Portsmouth Water could address much of the traffic concern by routing a new dedicated site road across it. Were they to allocate a little more car parking to the medical facilities at the same time, then Portsmouth Water’s current rather tarnished public image might just take on a shine. Like much concerning the water companies in this current climate, it comes down to a matter of trust.
To comment on the amended planning application
To register a new comment on this planning application, or to amend a previous comment you may have made, please use the following link to the planning system. It will take you directly to the page for entry of your comment. PLease make sure you tick the appropriate ‘Stance’ option, indicating whether you ‘Object‘, ‘Support‘, or are ‘Neutral‘. Don’t forget to press the green ‘Submit’ button at the bottom of that page. (If you’ve not previously registered with the planning system, simply take the ‘Submit and Register’ button.)
If you may have previously commented on this planning application and your opinion has not changed after consideration of the new amendments, then it would be worth stating that fact in a new comment.
The application will be open for comments until 20 September, 2023.
The wider picture
Readers should bear in mind that Havant Borough Council has a vested interest in the future of this planning application. The land on which the current Portsmouth Water HQ buildings stand is earmarked in the draft local plan for the development of 135 homes. Having already sold its Palk Road site to Bellway Homes for housing development off West Street, Portsmouth Water have the relationships in place to virtually guarantee the sale of its old HQ site.
In the current economic climate and with high public focus on the water industry, perhaps Portsmouth Water should seriously consider the availability of vacant office capacity in the borough rather than investing in new office development. The end result of that could be earlier delivery of new housing in the town centre on the West Street site and a more effective use of of the water company’s funds. Not to mention relieving the worry from the pharmacy, the medical practice and over 19,000 local residents on its patient list.
Havant Civic Society 