Phone boxes to go to appeal

Published on Sunday, 13th May 2018

Despite almost everyone having a mobile phone, there are more phone boxes in town centres than ever. The reason is advertising: phone boxes can be installed as essential infrastructure, effectively bypassing most planning rules and once in, they can then be used as advertising boards.

Applications for another five in Commercial Road were rejected on pedestrian safety grounds. All are going to appeal and hopefully all those appeals will fail.

Tags: Planning

Rail replacement works

Published on Sunday, 13th May 2018

Next weekend, Network Rail will be replacing track in the Portsmouth area. They hope to do all the works at night, in which case train service should not be affected.

Tags: Transport

Redundant office block set to become student accommodation

Published on Sunday, 13th May 2018

A revised proposal for the conversion of Wingfield House to student accommodation has been put forward. The former tax office in the northern end of Commercial Road already has permission for 295 student rooms, some of which would be within three new storeys to be added to the top of the building. The new application ups those numbers to 440, partly through an additional floor but mostly through reconfiguring the existing space to create more, smaller rooms.

The development of new student accommodation around Portsmouth and Southsea station has been controversial, but in my view it has been the right thing to do: it has freed up existing housing for other tenants; it has helped the University compete for students and it has been a catalyst for other development that would not be happening were it not for the transformation of the area taking place. The latest of these – a new hotel – is likely to be considered by the Planning Committee in June.

Student accommodation elsewhere in the city centre is less desirable, but national planning rules make a lot of it impossible to resist. As Wingfield House was previously an office block, it can be converted to housing without planning consent – and that extends to the conversion to cluster flats, where every room is rented by a student or to self contained bed sits, of any size, again where each room is rented by a student. In effect the only parts of the Wingfield House scheme that needs permission are the extra storeys and the cladding. It was a similar situation with Venture Tower, Fratton. The Planning Committee also had little choice but to allow student housing on Unity Hall, the old Labour Party HQ, in Lake Road, even though general purpose housing would have been a better use of the site.

Tags: Planning

Election results

Published on Sunday, 13th May 2018

I am delighted to have been re-elected to represent Eastney and Craneswater ward. The results were:

As far as the council as a whole goes, while the Conservative vote held up well, the Labour party made progress and UKIP lost all its remaining seats, resulting in a hung council where the combined LibDem and Labour vote now constitutes a narrow majority (at least once a leftwing independent is counted as part of the block). At this stage it is not clear whether any such coalition will be formed or whether the current Conservative minority administration will continue for another year. 

Tags: Election

Boost for Southsea shelter project

Published on Tuesday, 1st May 2018

The City Council set aside some £70,000 in last year’s budget to restore the Edwardian shelter that once stood where the Pyramids now is and to put it back on the seafront, just to the east of the Coffee Cup.

The indications are that that amount will not be sufficient. However thanks to an offer of financial help from Michael Eisner (owner of the football club) and assistance from local builder, PMC Construction, the project is now back on track.

Tags: Shelter

Sunday opening at Southsea library

Published on Tuesday, 1st May 2018

Southsea library in Palmerston Road will open on Sundays on a trial basis starting this coming weekend. If demand proves sufficient, it is hoped to make this arrangement permanent.

Tags: Libraries