Churches Homeless Action

Published on Sunday, 24th September 2017

Saturday was the launch event the Churches Homeless Action project, which is an annual fundraising drive to help the homeless and rough sleepers. Last year, they raised £14,000 in £5 gift vouchers that are given out at Christmas to people who would otherwise have very little.

There is also talk of a group of churches coming together to provide a rolling winter shelter, with each church on the roster opening its doors one night per week. It goes without saying that it is great to see the church pursing its social mission in this way.

On a related front, the launch event also included a demonstration of the streetsupport.net app, which the City Council is purchasing. This is a website that provides information on available help to people living on the street, such as where food is available. The database has not yet been populated, but will be in time for the official launch on the 10th.

Tags: Homelessness

Guildhall ice rink for the Christmas period

Published on Tuesday, 5th September 2017

A temporary ice rink for the Christmas period will grace Guildhall Square this year and every year to 2023. Subject to planning approval, the 700m2 surface will be in place between 18th November and 2nd of January. Christmas trees will be positioned around the boundary, with a larger tree in Commercial Road; the schools’ Christmas carol service will move to the dockyard.

This new facility will give the city centre a welcome lift, including in the evening (the rink will not close until 11pm). This is a purely commercial venture and is not being subsidised by the City Council. However just like the Oktoberfest event, this is an example of the council being proactive and making full use of the first rate space we have in Guildhall Square.

Tags: City Centre, Culture, Guildhall

Local plan consultation

Published on Tuesday, 5th September 2017

Every area in England has to produce and maintain a local plan that outlines land use policies and which can be used as the basis for determining planning applications. Portsmouth’s current local plan was adopted in 2012 and is getting rather long in the tooth. In the intervening five years, national policy has been changed most notably to reduce local authorities’ abilities to stop building changing use and to boost greenfield development, while technology has permanently reduced the demand for office and retail space.

The rules outlining how to update a local plan are laid down by government and it’s a time consuming and drawn out process. Portsmouth is starting the refresh of its policies now, with a view to having the new plan adopted by the end of 2019.

At this stage, the council is consulting on its Issues and Options document, which is a high-level document about general principles. Most of the content is pretty vanilla, with the difficult question of specific sites not covered until a subsequent document next year. General growth points are identified though, including Tipner, the City Centre and St James. If you want to take part, please go here to read the plan and here for the consultation. The deadline is 28th September.

The most important question is that of housing numbers. The council is putting forward two options for the period between 2011 and 2034, 14560 (633 per annum) and 17020 (740 per annum) and I would be surprised if many people picked the latter. 

National policy on housing numbers is that districts have to meet their housing need in full unless either a neighbouring district voluntarily accepts the shortfall or there are so few suitable sites that the target cannot be achieved in its entirety. South Hampshire has long benefited from a cooperative arrangement between the area’s councils to share out the numbers in a realistic manner. This is in contrast to most of the rest of the country, where a huge bun fight is the norm. 

Tags: Planning

Victorious clean up

Published on Tuesday, 5th September 2017

The Victorious festival all seemed to go very smoothly – apart from Network Rail cancelling late night services on Saturday during to a signalling fault. With so many people on the Common, getting things back to normal is a big job. Congratulations must go to Colas – the council’s contractor – for doing such an efficient job.

Tags: Common, Events, Culture

Hotel planning consent

Published on Tuesday, 5th September 2017

Positive news from the Planning Committee, with consent being granted for a new Travelodge Hotel by Victoria Park. The new 12-storey building will have 152 rooms and include a restaurant. 

Meanwhile another hotel application, this time for the site between Portsmouth and Southsea Station and Catherine House (formerly the Zurich building) is expected within the next couple of weeks.

Demand for hotel beds remains strong and these developments will be a shot in the arm for the city centre and will lead to stronger demand for cafés and restaurants in the area.

There was some concern from the committee about the loss of trees involved with the Travelodge application. This has already led to 25 parking spaces being removed from the scheme through the deletion of the basement car park.

Tags: Planning, City Centre

GPs practices to merge

Published on Tuesday, 5th September 2017

Over recent years, a large number of GP practices have merged. The larger scale allows them to better cover out-of-hours and to provide specialist services. It does not necessarily entail any changes to buildings – although occasionally it does.

The Eastney Practice and the Trafalgar Practice, both based in the Eastney Health Centre, Highland Road are the latest to merge. A letter here explains the details. On the face of it, I don’t see a problem (and I say that as a patient of the former)

Tags: NHS

Coastal path plan unveiled

Published on Monday, 7th August 2017

Natural England have revealed their plan for the Langstone Harbour stretch of the England Coastal Path. As expected, most of the route follows existing paths and the foreshore, with the only new construction proposed by Fraser Ranges. An alternative route will be designated by Eastney Creek, with walkers being advised to use the foreshore when the tide permits or to follow existing paths across Bransbury Park when it does not.

Legislation passed in 2013 grants walkers rights over undeveloped parts of the coastline of England. A signposted route along the entire 2700 mile length is being assembled, with a target completion date of 2020. A similar path already exists in Wales.

You can read more on the route here. At this stage, the line has not yet been finalised and there is an opportunity to comment.

Tags: Seafront, Coastal Path

Pop-up food venues to open this week

Published on Monday, 7th August 2017

Two new food outlets, the Heavenly Sausage and Sagali will open in new popup units along the seafront this week (the latter will see Mexican food). This is part of the council’s push to both improve the seafront offer and to generate income to protect local services. The mobile units will be relocated to accommodate sea defence works.

Tags: Seafront

Council buys shop to expand King’s Theatre

Published on Monday, 7th August 2017

The sweetshop next to the Kings’ Theatre has been purchased by the council. It will be added to the lease to the theatre trust, allowing them to expand their bar and restaurant offer, which will in turn improve their financial viability.

Some years ago, the council set aside £140,000 to pay for the unit if and when it became available. Theatre management have long nursed hopes of expansion and this shop is a vital piece in the jigsaw, standing midway between the theatre itself and two other shops already in their ownership. Eventually they hope to raise £15m as part of their Big Project to secure the theatre’s long term future as a profitable venue.

With the sad death of the owner of the sweetshop, Mr King, earlier this year, the property came on the market. Rising house prices meant the sum set aside was no longer sufficient and the council had to top it up to £185,000.

Tags: Kings Theatre, Albert Road