The former New Clarendon pub in Southsea to transform into an 8 bed student house

Another Portsmouth pub has been gobbled up by the constant desire to create housing in our already over-crowded city. 

Documents on the Portsmouth City Council website show the plans to turn the floors above what used to be The New Clarendon on Clarendon Road, Southsea into an eight bedroom student abode with the ground floor remaining as a shop.

Once again developers have been allowed to maximise profits from a small site without providing any provision for parking. Only a small cycle store will be erected at the back of the property, with enough space to house eight bicycles.     

       

In my mind, these token cycle store gestures are hints that the council knows that parking is a great issue in Portsmouth and one that is set to worsen with each new squeezed-in development. 

Make your own mind up – here is the link to the plans http://idox.portsmouth.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=M4VW7MMO02T00.

This link will take you to the PublicAccess portal where you can add your own comment directly to Portsmouth City Council. 

Transformation of The Royal Exchange pub on Fawcett Road adds to the parking permit problems for Southsea residents

I would like to make people aware of Portsmouth City Council’s attitude to the redevelopment of premises in the Fawcett Road area of Southsea.

In December 2010 The Royal Exchange on Fawcett Road sadly closed its doors for the last time. The Enterprise-owned pub was admittedly not the highest-class of establishment but it did still serve a community purpose.

The pub was a combination of the original corner plot and an extension into the terraced house next door. Since then the pub has been sold and is in the process of being converted back into two plots – reinstating the adjoining terrace house and the pub being converted into flats.

The area surrounding the pub has recently been incorporated into a parking permit scheme and the first parking permit free areas being Bramble Road, Talbot Road, Shanklin Road and Ventnor Road.

The original pub had a garage to the rear, which I believe the landlord had converted into a gym. Nevertheless it was still a garage and could potentially house a car.

When looking through the council’s website I stumbled across the proposed development. I was alarmed to see that it was the intention of the developer to turn the pub into three flats (one three-bed and two two-bed) and a two-bedroom terrace house.

A quick calculation would lead even the simplest person to assume that at least a few of these new occupants will have cars. Previously the pub had one family that lived above it and was catered for by the garage space. Patrons to the pub tended not to arrive by car, as they would most likely be partaking in a few alcoholic beverages.

Now the area that is already groaning under the pressure of being adjacent to the MB Orchard Road parking permit scheme will have potentially 20 new cars introduced to it (assuming that each room hosts an adult couple). TWENTY CARS!

Below is the council’s response to the problem. Three bike storage sheds. Yes, that’s right, three bike storage sheds.

Don’t forget that Fawcett Road is relatively near to Fratton Station and residents can get on an overpriced, unreliable train service. Or they can wait for an overpriced number 15 bus that makes its way down Fawcett Road every hour from 7am-8pm, depositing passengers in Portsmouth City Centre or at the Hayling Ferry.

Sadly nothing can be down to stop the decline of the British pub, or in fact the decline of some of the smaller shops along Fawcett Road, but Portsmouth City Council need to take into consideration that allowing developers to transform their empty carcasses into houses is not necessarily the answer. Parking is already a problem for many of the city’s residents and PCC should consider that when they are granting developers permission to transform the fundamental nature of premises. If that change means more residents, then it will mean more cars, and developers need to incorporate parking provision into their plans. Not like in the case of The Royal Exchange, take it away. 

The response from Portsmouth City Council

12/00418/FUL Central Southsea

124 Fawcett Road Southsea PO4 0DW

Conversion of former public house to form 3 flats (1 x 3 bed and 2 x 2 bed); external alterations to include new windows and doors

One representation has been received from the occupier of a property in a neighbouring road raising concerns about the lack of parking provision associated with the proposal due to the recent introduction of the Orchard Road parking scheme.

Planning permission has been previously granted (in November 2011) for the conversion of the former pub to an 8-bedroom house in multiple occupation, which is considered to confirm the acceptability of the change of use of the premises to a residential use. This permission did not include any provision of off-street car parking and none was associated with the former public house. Having regard to previous permission, the location of the site in an area of high accessibility to public transport and its proximity to the services and amenities located within the nearby Fawcett Road Local Centre (50 metres to the north), it is considered that a car free development is acceptable. The proposal is considered to represent an appropriate form of development that would not significantly affect the amenities of the occupiers of neighbouring properties. The proposed external alterations to the building are considered acceptable in both design and heritage terms (included on the list of locally important buildings).

Mr Simon Barnett Tel: 023 9284 1281 Conditional Permission

Portsmouth City Council decide fate of the Bramble Road area at one-off traffic meeting after the unpopular introduction of residents parking zones

Here are the decisions that were made at the ‘one-off’ Traffic and Transportation meeting regarding the fate of Bramble Road and the surrounding roads - Shanklin Road, Ventnor Road and Talbot Road.

Portsmouth City Council held the meeting on Monday, 12 June and all three Central Southsea Ward Lib Dem councillors attended it.

They heard that over 200 people have requested a parking permit scheme in that area despite not being formally consulted. There have been three petitions and many houses in that area are displaying a poster in their windows in support of a scheme.

Because of the overwhelming public support, the decision was made to go ahead with a survey in these roads to enable residents to decide if they would like to have a residents parking permit scheme.

The proposed North Kings parking scheme (covering Havelock, Lorne, Livingstone and Outram area) is much further ahead than the Bramble Road area meaning that there will be a period of around 3 months where residents will be in the parking permit sandwich discussed in my earlier blog.

The councillors said it would not be possible to bring the new schemes forward as there are statutory processes to be followed.  

The costs of implementing the MB Orchard Road scheme - the initial trigger for the displacement of cars into Bramble, Ventnor, Shanklin and Talbot - was £45,000. To implement the new zones if residents opt ‘yes’ in the proposed survey would cost a further £90,000.

The council have decided to survey the residents with the prospect of creating two new zones roughly the same size as the Orchard Road scheme to tackle the problems caused by its implementation back in November last year.

My thoughts on the meeting:

• What a waste of money the initial MB Orchard Road scheme was!
• Fighting fire with fire? Is it time to admit defeat and scrap the residents parking permit scheme altogether?
•  If you survey roads with no problem they will vote ‘no’ to a new scheme and then when they are on the edge of a zone and are suffering from displacement of cars they will want to be included. Where do you draw the line? Should the survey take into account there will always be a displacement of cars? Is it time to make the whole of Portsmouth permit only?
• At the very minimum the new North Kings scheme should be postponed until the Bramble Road area has been sorted. The solution needs to be approached in a logical manner – yes, they cannot bring the Bramble Road scheme forward but they can shelve the North Kings scheme so that all the schemes launch at the same time, avoiding any parking permit sandwich areas.

Look what made the front page of The News...

The news of Portsmouth City Council admitting that they did make a mistake by implementing residents parking permit schemes.

What The News should be screaming on the front page is that Portsmouth City Council have made a massive error of judgement by borishly imposing parking permits on the city's residents.

Am I the only one thinking about the incredible amount of our money they have wasted?

A parking permit sandwich - MB Orchard Road dispersal, an issue that needs Portsmouth City Council's urgent attention

Bramble Rd, Ventnor Rd, Talbot Rd - Shanklin Rd is unnamed

Portsmouth City Council has finally acknowledged that the introduction of the Orchard Road parking scheme has caused a dispersion of cars into the Bramble Road area and they seem poised to do something about it. 

Since the MB parking scheme was introduced in November last year residents of Bramble Road, Shanklin Road, Talbot Road and Ventnor Road have been left frustrated at the council’s actions. 

The council's controversial parking permit scheme allows you to park on the road outside your house, if you can find a space. The permits are free for the first car, £53.50 annually for the second and £107.50 annually for the third. The chances of you persuading the council that you need more than three? Slim-to-none. 

This particular area of Portsmouth is very heavily student orientated with many houses being converted into four, five or six bedroom student digs. You would have to be a very naïve and middle-aged person to think that all students are poor and don’t have cars. It’s actually quite the opposite. 

Students love to have a car because it means they can drive home whenever they like. They often don’t register their car to their student house, leaving it registered at their parents, which is why the figures are so skewed. Regardless of that, how would they figure out how to split the cost of permits? Who would get the free one and who would have to pay?

Parking quite clearly an issue

They are often left confused as to how to get a permit. To apply they need to take a copy of their official documents to the Portsmouth offices. This poses many problems. Firstly, they would need to change the documents to their transient address. Secondly, they are often new to the city and new to the adult world of bills and the council and usually have no idea where to start. 

A good article about the parking permit scheme and how it alienates students was featured in Portsmouth University's student magazine Pugwash. You can view a copy here http://issuu.com/pugwashnews/docs/issue_61. 

The Portsmouth City Council website clearly states that they ‘have introduced a number of successful parking permit schemes’ but omits that they have equally introduced some highly unpopular and unsuccessful ones too. 

Personally, as a resident of Bramble Road, I have been angered by the way the council refuses to listen to its residents and ploughs on with their plans, regardless of any comments or problems caused. 

The Lib Dems promised that this issue would be sorted if they were voted back in. That promise was music to residents' ears and we all swiftly hot-stepped down to the polling station and voted them back in.That was six weeks ago and today a notice is placed in the Monday edition of The News that a new scheme is being implemented in the Lawrence Road area. 

What does this mean for Bramble Road? As soon as this new zone is in force then we will be in a parking permit sandwich. Facing an invasion from all sides. 

A rare space on the right hand side of Bramble Rd

A quick check of the Portsmouth City Council’s website reveals that a meeting is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 10am regarding Bramble Road. If they agree to a parking permit scheme in our area we would still be facing a 36-week wait for it to come into action. 

The Lawrence Road scheme is much further down the line than our proposed scheme so whatever happens tomorrow morning we will still be facing a period of time suffering the knock-on effects of the two zones. 

I wait with anticipation to see the outcome of this meeting. As I am sure that the many other residents similarly affected by this scheme will do too.

That includes the paramedic that comes home in the early hours of the morning after a long shift to regularly find no parking space, the young mother with a new baby that walks 20 minutes at night by herself when she can't get a space, the elderly lady who lives by herself whose daughter cannot visit her everyday as she cannot park, the taxi driver who regularly gets blocked in his garage and cannot go to work to support his family, the mother that carries her disabled daughter through the streets, the couple that fear a fire engine could not get to them if needed, the man whose wife is terminally ill and gets blocked in by cars parking that should have permits and be parking in their own zone. All these stories are true and makes me returning from a late night studying in Solent University's library pale in comparison.

If you feel aggrieved by any of Portsmouth City Council’s resident permit schemes please write to Nikki Musson Portsmouth City Council Civic Offices Portsmouth PO1 2NE or call her on 023 9283 4461.

For details of the proposed meeting visit http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/yourcouncil/24962.html.