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The 2017 Southleigh Masterplan – For reference
Before you visit the Bloor Southleigh events – see previous post – you may want to familiarise yourself with the masterplan produced for Havant Borough Council in 2017. The document predates the slightly more recent ‘preferred design’ for a significantly descoped A27 link, which was published in 2018 and covered in this previous HCS post.…
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Planning Consultants and the TRICS of their trade
If you’re a regular reader of the HCS blog, you’ll be aware that major commercial planning applications invariably come with supporting documents from planning consultants. For large applications, transport-related documentation forms the core of the supporting material. Recent experience has suggested that this documentation is often used to argue, through countless densely printed pages and…
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Crossland Drive residents – Frontline casualties of Planning Services failures
The brief video below was sent to Havant Civic Society by a resident of Crossland Drive. We passed it on to the management team at Amazon DPO1, the local ward councillors and the Hampshire County Council cabinet member for Highways, on 1 February 2025, for review and response as a matter of urgency. More than…
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Havant’s town centre traffic gears up for another surge
The planning application at the former Dunham Bush manufacturing site is shortly up for approval by the HBC Planning Committee. The development will further strain the profile of traffic generated by the Havant North industrial estate without providing the quality and security of employment that the residents of the borough need. It is worth taking…
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Amazon DPO1 – Another traffic ‘incident’
Early this morning, right outside the NHS Elmleigh Hospital, New Lane was completely blocked by a stranded Amazon ‘line-haul’ truck. With its trailer parked right across the road and its driving wheels embedded in what used to be a grass verge, it wasn’t going anywhere without some serious haulage heft. Meanwhile, the grass verges on…
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Amazon DPO1 – The St. Alban’s meeting, 19 April, 2024
[Updated with a full report of the meeting – 21 April 2024] This post contains a full account of a meeting organised by the Havant Labour group to enable local residents to share their views and concerns about the operation of the Amazon DPO1 delivery station at New Lane. Contents [Return to Table of Contents]…
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Amazon – Public Meeting, Friday 19 April
For those concerned about the growing impact of Amazon traffic on the town centre residential streets, please note that there will be a public meeting on Friday 19 April at 7:30pm at St Alban’s Church Hall on Bartons Road. There will be updates from the HCS Chair, a resident member of the Amazon DPO1 Community…
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White vans. If you can’t beat them, join them!
If you’re anywhere out and about in Havant between 9:30 and 12:30*, seven days a week, you’ll probably have noticed this logo, usually stuck on the back door of a tattered white van along with a separate sticker advertising ‘driving jobs’. They’re usually tucked into a bigger, even more anonymous fleet of similar vans, mostly…
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Traffic – Havant’s ticking timebomb
This year, we’re going to put the spotlight on traffic, given the evident disconnect between Hampshire County Council, Havant Borough Council and reality as far as traffic planning goes. This first of a series of posts sets out the background and provides context for the ones which will follow. Understanding why Havant town has a traffic…
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How is Amazon getting away without paying business rates?
Update: 1 February, 2024 On 23 January 2024, after almost a year’s delay, the Valuation Office Agency published a valuation for the DPO1 site, backdated to 1 April 2023 with no interest payable. The reason for the delay is not available. Perhaps rather more to the point, what is Havant Borough Council doing about it? While we’re…
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Amazon. So who got the best deal here?
We’ve been wondering why 32 New Lane, perhaps more aptly named ‘Little Luxembourg’, has yet to appear on Havant Borough Council’s published record of business rates. A chart of the income received by Havant Borough Council from the 32 New Lane site over the past four years might cause one or two raised eyebrows. During…
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Amazon – The unanswered questions
When a ‘last mile delivery centre’ was first proposed for Pfizer’s former site in New Lane in January 2021, the marketing flyer from the developer gave few hints of the extent to which that description was being stretched. The location’s constrained access to the UK strategic road network, via the town centre and nearby residential…
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Amazon – Kirklees 1, Havant 0
Fourteen months ago when we were reflecting on the planning committee’s ill-judged decision on the second Amazon planning application, one of the local authorities that we used as a reference source was Kirklees Council. How refreshing it was, therefore, to read in Saturday’s Times that a small local Yorkshire village pressure group had succeeded in…
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Amazon @ 32 New Lane – Contact for concerns
NEWTo join the mailing list of residents concerned about Amazon DPO1 operations please select this link Now that the Amazon DPO1 facility is ramping up for business, Havant Matters would like to understand how the business is affecting you, as a resident of the area, a worker on the site or a driver operating from…
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Amazon creeps into action – still unannounced
People are already noticing that some of their orders are ‘out for delivery’ from Havant. Watch out for a slow, steady build up over the next few months. It’s a bit of a puzzle why Havant Borough Council are being so coy about this still. It may be in the wrong place but hey, it’s…
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Amazon Havant – Radio Solent, 23 February 2023
For those who missed this morning’s broadcast on Radio Solent, you can listen back to the main segments from Alun Newman’s program, with BBC Senior Reporter Dom Blake the man on the spot, by taking the YouTube link below. Sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, Hampshire County Council, Havant Borough Council and Amazon declined the BBC’s…
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Could ‘citizen science’ keep Amazon’s traffic in check?
Stop Press – the signs are up. When the new Chief Executive takes the helm of the HBC management organisation in April, he’s going to have a few challenges to confront. His elected opposite number might also have a few lessons to learn following the May elections. High on the agenda of both leaders should…
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Energy wastage continues at the Amazon site
The last time we reported on the rather irresponsible waste of energy at the currently unoccupied 32 New Lane site, we asked Councillor Pike, Amazon’s main man at HBC, for comment: “The outside and car park lights are all movement sensitive, and should only come on when movement occurs, reducing to 10% power when no…
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Amazon – Lighting up the night sky over Havant
Residents from Nutwick Road and further afield have been raising complaints about the intensity of the lighting at the Amazon Delivery Station at 32 New Lane. The lighting, predominantly from the four storey van parking building, has been running round the clock, seven days a week since the start of the year. When the lighting…
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The news that comes as no surprise at all
After two long years and two contentious planning applications, Havant Borough Council’s ‘dirty little secret’ is finally out in the open. The new Amazon delivery centre servicing Portsmouth and all point west to Southampton, north to Guildford and east to Bognor really is in New Lane. It would have been nice if Havant Borough Council…
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Amazon – WYSIWYG – What you see is what you get
As predicted in our report from 9 August. You might share Jo Kent’s alarmed expression from BBC South Today (Friday 18 November 2022) when you watch the three-minute clip below and remember that the Havant distribution hub is almost 40% bigger than this one just opened at Poole. A few quotations from the piece: “In…
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Amazon roasted by UK Government Select Committee
For now, this is just a general interest post. Only time will tell whether or not the detail is relevant to Havant and more specifically to 32 New Lane. Back in August, the CEO of Kingsbridge Estates refused to deny that the ‘intended occupant’ at that site is Amazon, citing the Non-Disclosure Agreement he was…
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HBC Planning Committee makes another flawed decision
On September 29, the HBC Planning Committee once again delivered the wrong verdict on a significant local planning application by following the direction of its Chair, who once again invited accusations of incompetence by risking a costly and almost certainly successful appeal by a developer. The full detail is given below, but if you just…
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HCC’s response to Havant’s traffic issues leaves HCS members’ questions unanswered
There have been a number of recently approved planning applications where residents have had serious concerns over the impact on traffic through the town. We therefore thought it would be helpful to residents if a representative of the Hampshire County Council (HCC) Highways Team attended our public meeting on 3 November to explain their processes…
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Amazon Havant – Breaking the silence
It’s been a long time since we’ve posted an update on the 32 New Lane site but following the first, long-overdue face-to-face meeting between the site owner, the developer and the residents, facilitated – or not, as it happened – by Havant Borough Council (HBC) representatives, this update is also long overdue. The public meeting…
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Lidl – Another ‘final straw’ for the Asda roundabout?
At the meeting of the Planning Committee on 30th June, approval was given to the planning application for the new Lidl store beside the B&Q site in northern Bedhampton. While this hardly came as a surprise to those who regularly watch the activities of the Planning Committee, it seems that the Committee and its chairman,…
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Amazon – Analysis of the Planning Committee’s decision
Updated from original report of the meeting, February 4thUpdated , 19-2-2022, added final Conclusion The ‘Amazon’ disclaimer As the Planning Committee Meeting was reminded on February 3rd, there is still no official statement identifying the intended occupier for the 32 New Lane site. The two planning applications for that site have been considered “for what…
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Amazon Havant – HCS brings you the facts that HBC considered irrelevant
Updated – 11 February 2022Updated – 17 February 2022 – Added link to Planning Committee decision analysisUpdated – 18 February 2022 – Added discussion of ‘new’ Amazon delivery model By the time you’ve finished reading this, you should be much better placed to judge whether or not the Officers and elected representatives of both Havant…
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That New Lane planning application – In the News today
There’s a double bill of content in today’s print edition of the News. Firstly Toby Paine’s article, which has unfortunately been edited for the print edition and in the process, has lost a significant sentence from the original online edition published on 27-1-2022. (See HCS post from the same day) To read the full text,…
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Latest update on Amazon from ‘The News’
There’s a good piece by Toby Paine in Today’s News – online edition. When the original planning application was approved in September 2021, regular readers will recall that HBC Planning Services attached a number of carefully worded planning conditions. The most significant of these required that traffic counters be placed at all three site entrances…
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Amazon’s* white vans, parking on a street near you next year
On 9 September last year, the Planning Committee approved the demolition of the Pfizer site at 32 New Lane and its replacement by an Amazon distribution centre. HCS and the New Lane Residents had argued long and hard that the traffic numbers on which the application was based were completely unsound, a fact that any…
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Kingsbridge attempts to strip Havant Borough Council of control over the traffic generated by its widely rumoured Amazon distribution centre
Kingsbridge Estates have raised another planning application in an attempt to remove or cripple key planning conditions placed on the approval for its proposed Amazon Delivery Centre at the former Pfizer site at 32 New Lane. The conditions in question are those deliberately drafted by Havant Borough Council’s planning officers to enable them to manage…
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The reasons why HBC must stick to its guns over the New Lane ‘last mile delivery centre’
A new planning application has been raised for the former Pfizer site at 32 New Lane: APP/21/01244 | Variation of condition No’s 4 (Operational Management Plan), 9 (Livery/Branding), 10 (Traffic Monitoring) and 28 (Employment and Skills Plan) of planning permission APP/21/00200 and the introduction of a new Community Liaison Strategy Condition. | 32 New Lane, Havant, PO9 2NG The…
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32 New Lane – An important update
If you made a comment on the contentious Planning Application for the ‘last mile delivery centre’ at New Lane, you will have received a letter in the past couple of days from HBC notifying you of a new planning application for the site. This is because Kingsbridge Estates have submitted a new application to make…
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HBC, planning applications and a little matter of trust
Updated – 22 October Updated – 20 December It might surprise you to know that 81% of the residents of Havant trust their council. With the national average score being just 64%, which in itself would seem a commendable result, that must put Havant Borough Council right up near the top of the league table…
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The 32 New Lane ‘intended occupier’? The News believes it to be Amazon
A typically tabloid headline which, if true, will be pounced on by Havant Borough Council for their next press release. The real number appears towards the end of the article. If we are to believe the content of the planning application, there will be just over 70 permanent jobs, at least some of which we…
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The 32 New Lane planning decision – as it happened
Preface There are four video clips covering the entire agenda item of the meeting in this post. If you want to understand how planning decisions are taken at HBC, then this is as good a place as any to start. We’ve left off the boring piece at the beginning, though it does contain some interesting…
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32 New Lane, Vectos and Mr. Dix’s difficulty with numbers.
At yesterday’s planning committee meeting, had anybody actually been listening, rather than just making up the numbers, they’d have picked up at first hand the difficulty we’ve had making sense of the Vectos transport documentation associated with the 32 New Lane planning application. Read on, then look at the table and listen to the clip…
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HBC votes for increased traffic while RegenCo gets the green light to spend more on consultants
This will be a brief update, our regular webmaster having taken a well-deserved break. There will be a couple of detailed posts coming in a few days as we outline below, but for now, if you’ve been away, just take the links in the text below to catch up. Over the past two evenings, the…
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The ‘Pfizer site’ at 32 New Lane – “When you’re in a hole, stop digging”
We’re getting tired of reporting on this one. We’re certainly tired of wading through the nonsense that the applicant’s ‘transport consultant’ turns out. The Kingsbridge application to redevelop the old Pfizer cold store site at 32 New Lane might have seemed like a bright idea to somebody who doesn’t know the town, but for local…
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The Solent Freeport – an update
You may remember that we wrote a piece way back in March on the Solent Freeport bid, asking just what it might mean for Havant. At the time, we drew a map outlining where we expected the Solent Freeport ‘outer boundary’ to be, since the bid documentation linked to that previous post failed to disclose…
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Kingsbridge re-imagine the traffic numbers for the ‘Pfizer site’ application
Kingsbridge Developments have added further documents to the set they submitted in February for the 32 New Lane Planning Application. Following our earlier reports on the likely impact of allowing such a traffic generating business in the middle of a town already constrained by peak time traffic issues, Kingsbridge and their Transport Consultant, Vectos, went…
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Taking Responsibility for Traffic Management
Updated 18/4/2021 07:00 Background to this article A planning application is under review for an unnamed international warehousing and distribution company to set up a ‘last mile delivery’ operation at the former Pfizer site in New Lane. The 24/7, three shift operation will provide the base for more than 800 delivery vans servicing Hampshire, Sussex…
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32 New Lane – The full story on traffic and jobs?
Updated – 03-4-2021:Read the main story hereRead our media comment hereRead our ‘Fact check’ post here Consultation on this plan officially closes on Tuesday but comments can still be made online after that date. If you feel strongly about this, please do make your views known. Full details are given in the ‘Main story’ post, see the…
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Fact Checking the New Lane ‘Last mile delivery’ hub application
Let’s just try and ‘fact check’ our post on the planning submission for 32 New Lane. Statement (Fact) Source So who actually is it? Until the applicant comes clean and completes the documentation properly, we won’t know. All we’ve said is that based on the information given, the ‘100 sites across Europe’ listed in the…
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The Pfizer site plan – 2,500 extra HGV/LGV and 3,000 extra car movements every day – the 24/7 cost to our residential streets.
Updated – 02-4-2021:Read our media comment hereRead our ‘Fact check’ post hereRead our update on traffic numbers and jobs When we first reported on this one, we only had part of the story. To be honest, even now, we have less than three quarters of the story given that the planning application was submitted, probably…
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Havant’s ‘Last Mile Traffic’ jam?
Ask anyone who lives in the town how frustrating the last mile of their journey to work or their journey home can be and the response probably wouldn’t be much of a surprise. Through traffic on Havant’s town centre road network isn’t exactly speedy at the best of times and when the Langstone roundabout gets…
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Are the Traffic team asleep at the wheel?
This would seem to be the question of the moment (read on). You probably won’t be surprised to hear that this afternoon’s Development Management Committee meeting passed the planning application for a Domino’s pizza takeaway at the former HSBC site by 4 votes to 2. (To be fair, if the voting had been restricted to…
Havant Civic Society 