Published on Wednesday, 14th March 2018

 

A year ago, the government invited Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to consider whether they wanted to take control of their local fire brigades. Currently the administration of fire services is carried out by local government, either through a joint committees of councillors, a county council or a regional mayor: in this area, that function is carried out by the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority (HFRA) and its ten members, drawn from Hampshire County Council and from the City Councils in Southampton and Portsmouth. I am the Portsmouth member.

 

So far, Essex is the only area where control has shifted to the Police and Crime Commissioner, but there are many others where business cases have been submitted and where the government has not yet made a decision either way.

 

In Hampshire, there will be no change – at least in the short term – following a letter from the Police and Crime Commissioner, Michael Lane, explaining that he does not intend to ask the government to make a change at this time. His letter is at http://www.lukestubbs.com/files/fireletter.pdf (it starts on page 3).

 

This is welcome. HFRA is doing more than just about any other authority to work with the police and local government: its back-office functions are largely provided by the county council; community policing is based in fire stations in many areas and the fire brigade provides a first responder service to some ambulance callouts in the rural parts of the county, when quite often the journey time for the nearest fire engine is less than that for an ambulance. The fire authority has also voluntarily reduced its size from 25 members to ten to simplify and accelerate decision making (and make itself cheaper).

 

The wording in the letter is clear that a business case may still be submitted at a later date, with this decision not to do so now being ‘for the time being’ and that the PCC will ‘maintain a watching brief’,

 

Tags: Fire

Published on Wednesday, 14th March 2018

 

In a good bit of investigative journalism, the Guardian has revealed how low the proportion of affordable housing is in new developments in many of this country's biggest cities (https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/05/british-cities-developers-affordable-housing-manchester-sheffield). Over the last two years, permission has been granted for more than 14,000 new homes in the Manchester City Council area, but of those, not one is for affordable rent, and only a handful will be available for shared ownership. The picture is not dramatically different in many other core cities, with the proportion of affordable housing being 1.4% in Sheffield, 3.4% in Leeds and 3.8% in Nottingham. The only figure from London is for the City of Westminster where it stands at 12.4%.

 

All these authorities have policies requiring a certain percentage of affordable housing in larger developments, but all are largely waving these requirements as a result of viability assessments: national regulations allow developers to bypass these obligations if they can demonstrate that they would result in development not been sufficiently profitable.

 

Portsmouth too has been affected by viability arguments, but not on this scale. We have also seen some 100% affordable schemes go through, including in Fratton Road and by Fratton station.

 

As we move to this year's council elections, the Labour Party, in particular, is attacking the City Council for not providing more affordable housing. Of course, this ignores the fact that the largest council house building programme in a generation is now taking place. It is also worth remembering that all of the local authorities in the Guardian article – apart from Westminster – are Labour controlled. These cities may very well have good reasons for acting as they are; to my mind what this article illustrates is the gulf between campaign statements and governing reality.

 

Tags: Housing

Published on Friday, 2nd March 2018

 

The Blackwell's bookshop within the Students' Union building closed today. This will mean there is no specialist student book retailer left in the city. The specifics of why this is happening is not clear, but the big picture is: most book sales are now done online and even having a university is no longer enough to automatically sustain a bookshop.

The University and the shop manager are both blaming each other for the closure. Variously it is being said that the University is demanding the space back and is, therefore, evicting the bookshop, while the University says that it is Blackwell's decision.

The council has made an offer of space in the library. It's hard to say whether anything will come from this, but it is potentially a lifeline.

Tags: University, Retail

Published on Wednesday, 28th February 2018

 

Portsmouth City Council currently directly employs 89 apprentices, with a further 20 in local authority schools. This is a dramatic rise: in September 2014, the figure was just 28 and that was a sharp improvement on previous years. They work across the organisation, with a particular concentration being in business administration. 

 

Apprenticeships are a good way of upskilling the workforce and of recruiting new staff. While the government is trying to increase take up, particularly in the public sector, few organisations employ as large a proportion as Portsmouth.

 

Typically apprentices spend a day a week on study or training. The number who drop out part of the way through is encouragingly low.

 

Tags: Apprenticeships

Published on Wednesday, 28th February 2018

 

Work to convert the Vanguard Centre, Cosham to a special school is nearing completion. The £3m scheme was agreed three years ago, following a decision to close two other sites of Harbour School, which is the city’s main special needs school. 

 

The Fratton site is to the rear of Penhale School. It is a Victorian-era building and it has passed the end of its useful life. It is in very poor condition and is arguably the most rundown building the council owns. Once the new centre opens, it will be demolished and the site sold to help offset some of the cost of the new building.

 

Meanwhile, the Milton site had to close following an NHS decision to release land at St James’ hospital for housing; the school was within the grounds and NHS Property Services declined to extend the lease.

 

The new facility will open in September. It will focus on vocational training, with courses such as mechanics or hairdressing for pupils between the ages of 14 and 16 and for whom mainstream educational provision does not work. The Vanguard centre had been used to support adults with physical disabilities but was closed several years ago.

 

Tags: Schools

Published on Wednesday, 28th February 2018

 

It’s been a bad couple of weeks for the retail sector, with both Toys R Us and Maplin Electronics likely to disappear completely and with closure dates announced for Marks and Spencer’s, in Portsmouth and in Fareham.

 

Shopping habits are changing rapidly. Nationwide approximately 15% of retail spending goes on online purchases, while out-of-town centres continue to grow and the likes of Asda and Tesco sell an ever wider range of goods. This is bound to have an effect on the High Street.

 

Locally, the City Council is doing what it can to support shops. This includes, for example, establishing a market in Cosham and continuing to offer some, admittedly limited, free parking in Southsea and other district centres. As it does not own any town centre shops, the council cannot determine rent levels. Business rates for shops are generally coming down though. The rateable value for Debenhams in Commercial Road is now £915,000, compared to £1,280,000 in 2010 and the value for the Marks and Spencer’s store has fallen from £715,000 to £610,000 over the same period.

 

Commercial Road is also getting at least some relief from having large numbers of students living in the city centre and will also benefit when the two new hotels planned for the area open. In the longer run, a lot is hinging on the City Centre Road Scheme and the new shopping area that will follow if it goes ahead. In future, retail will be concentrated in a small number of big centres. Portsmouth city centre needs to join Southampton and Guildford as a shopping and leisure destination.

 

Tags: Town Centres, Retail

Published on Sunday, 11th February 2018

An eighteen-month programme to replace the bulbs in the city’s streetlights started last week. The new LED lights use 40% less energy than the current sodium ones and will need replacing less frequently. 

 

Only the lantern head will be replaced; it will take about fifteen minutes to swap each one, so the level of disruption in any individual street will be minimal. The ornate lighting used in parts of Old Portsmouth and Southsea will not be changed.

 

The first phase of the works covers Portsea. This area of the city will get the new bulbs between about May and August. Click here to see the timetable.

 

Tags: Transport, Rail

Published on Sunday, 11th February 2018

 

A 19th century railway bridge on the route to Gunwharf is to be replaced this coming week. It will inevitably cause congestion.

 

Network Rail will be carrying out works to replace the Burnaby Road bridge between Monday and Friday. Portsmouth Harbour station will be closed throughout that period, as will Park Road, which is the main access to Gunwharf.

 

Next week is half term and the shops and cinema at Gunwharf will be busier than normal. Rail usage is however always lower in school holidays, which is why Network Rail has taken the decision to do the works then. Diversions will be in place, but queues are likely. The £2.7m cost of the works is being met entirely by Network Rail.

 

Tags: Transport, Rail

Published on Sunday, 11th February 2018

 

Breathe Easy Southsea, a group for people with COPD and other lung conditions, has received money from the Portsmouth Lottery for new exercise equipment. The group, which meets in the Mountbatten Centre, also gets free support from a trainer from BH Live as part of the council’s leisure centre contract with that company. The exercises the members of the group undertake help to maintain lung capacity and therefore to their stop long term health conditions from worsening.

 

The council is providing practical help to people with medical conditions through the leisure facilities it already owns. The lottery grants, while modest at up to £2000, are a practical way of helping small groups fund worthy projects.

 

Tags: Health, Leisure

Published on Sunday, 11th February 2018

 

Draft plans for 130 houses and flats on the Fraser Range site were shown to the public at the start of last week. As expected, the two main existing buildings are retained and converted to housing, while the new units proposed are largely on existing buildings or parking areas.

 

The quality of the design is good and the buildings do not go over four storeys in height. Obviously this is a very sensitive site and ecological issues will be of central importance. While it is intended to leave the eastern end of the site undeveloped, there are unanswered questions about the impact on bird and plant life. Flood defences are also a key issue, with the developer liable for the full cost of protecting the area.

 

On a positive note, the scheme includes an extension to the England Coastal Path, which in conjunction with an extension around the Southern Water site would mean a full path around that part of the coastline.

 

Any additional housing would also put pressure on school places and on the road network. However as this location is brownfield land in planning law, it won’t be possible to refuse permission on those grounds. The most the council will be able to do is secure some funding to try and mitigate the problem.

 

There is no planning application at this stage, although one is likely in the next couple of months. That means we do not yet know whether any social housing will be included; my expectation though is that it will not be. The developers are running a consultation on their website (www.fraserrange.co.uk), where there is more information.

 

Tags: Housing, Planning

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