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A Dramatic Year!

For me personally, it's been a dramatic year - with the loss of the Tricorn and a heart operation... One way and another, megastructures have preoccupied us. Developers and their architects often now show us their designs. We liked David Richmond and Partners' very large block for the Brickwoods brewery site in Queen Street, at present a car park for the historic dockyard. The Naval Base Property Trust has a welcome record for architectural excellence; they held an architectural competition for this site. A two-deck car park with an enclosed garden on top will be surrounded by apartments, flanked by an elegant 23 storey point block on Queen Street. 540 units of housing will be of varying sizes from studio flats upwards. Sadly the scheme involves demolition of an eighteenth century listed house in Admiralty Road, but we thought its loss worth the overall gain.

In contrast 'Pompey Village' - 530 units - of varying heights up to 20+ storeys by HGP and the realignment of the stadium with two new stands is not nearly as good as their unbuilt design for the stadium at Farlington. The South Eastern Regional Design Panel commented: "One can only suspect that the massing is being influenced by the need to finance the adjacent stadium, not by good urban design." We objected both to the stadium and the village on design grounds, particularly the proposed gating. We suggested planning gain in the form of access and improvements to Fratton Station. The Club took the view that if the city wanted first class football they couldn't expect improvements to the infrastructure without paying for it. Despite the criticism of the design, the applications were approved by the Development Control Committee in July. It appears that for the achievement of this great goal one had to overlook little matters of architecture and urban design. The third high rise residential scheme is proposed at Gunwharf, including a tower block of 29 storeys on the site of the King's Mill, to go to committee soon.

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PFI for Roads, building and maintenance

During the year the Council agreed to the proposal urged on them by Government for a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) whereby a contractor, Ensign Highways Limited owned jointly by Colas Limited and Colas S.A., the French parent company, contracts to rebuild, repair and maintain the entire road network of the city for 25 years. The contractors will be responsible for street cleaning, gully emptying, grounds maintenance, tree works, traffic signal maintenance and on-site traffic management. The advantage of the PFI over the obvious alternative of borrowing piecemeal to rebuild a particular road as the need arises then borrow whatever its cost would be, was not explained to the public. We ascertained from the Treasury that the Local Government Act 2003 had relaxed the restrictions on councils' borrowing by enabling them to raise finance from the Public Works Loan Board. Councils can borrow much more cheaply than private sector contractors. Part of the briefing given to the councillors was in 'exempt' documents which the public were not allowed to see, and our representatives were excluded from the Council meeting and from that of the Executive which preceded it. We expressed our concerns to all councillors before the meeting.

There had been much publicity about the disadvantages of PFI and PPP (Public Private Partnerships) and it continues. As we write, it is revealed by the Commons Public Accounts Committee that the PPP for the London Underground is costing the public £1billion more than a bond financing scheme would have cost. What disconcerts us is that the PFI arrangement puts the management of the road system largely outside the control of the city engineer and so out of the control of the council - for twenty five years! However the briefing document says that it has been possible to preserve some degree of influence for Members and officers "but the direct influence on day to day programmes is not as great as previously." Neglected roads and pavements are already being resurfaced.

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Signs

Signs - legal and illegal - proliferate, but local authorities do have power to take action for their removal. Our member Bob Adderley has been a vigorous campaigner on this score. Our problems, however, are nothing compared with those in Prague, where whole buildings in historic areas are covered with huge adverts!

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A Portsmouth Treasure - now less dimly revealed

In revamping and converting to a pub what was the Trafalgar Club in Edinburgh Road - Wetherspoons got Eric Rimmington, the original painter of the celebrated mural in the basement to restore it -but they encased it in glass with so much reflection you could not see it properly. Wetherspoons improved the lighting so that the whole of this splendid picture is at last visible in the downstair bar.

Determination of planning applications

Local authorities are under pressure to speed up the planning process so most planning applications are determined by officers rather than by committee. We have been concerned about this as very large and sometimes controversial buildings slip through without committee approval. If it gets to them, the committee can refuse permission on design grounds despite recommendations by officers. Despite its prominent site the Horseshoe pub at the King's Road roundabout was not referred to committee. The Head of Planning has told us that there are no absolute criteria for referral to committee other than a councillor requesting it or deputation being requested. "Considerable public interest" indicated by the number of representations also has an influence on the decision to refer. We have urged that size should be made to count, e.g. more than £5 million and also that public interest should be an important consideration. These are, after all, political decisions and we think they should be made by politicians.

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The Mainline they shouldn’t ignore

The Society responded to a consultative document by the Rail Passengers' Council (RPC) on the Portsmouth to Bristol and South Wales rail route as the franchise for Wessex Trains (the current operators) was drawing to a close. The RPC wanted to ensure that the views of as many people and organisations are heard so that improvements to the service can be incorporated into the new contract with whichever operator the Strategic Rail Authority chooses. Locally, the service receives little public attention as the principal operator in the city is South West Trains. However the Portsmouth to Cardiff route offers an important and reliable link between the cities of Portsmouth, Southampton, Salisbury, Bath, Bristol , Newport and Cardiff, running hourly, seven days a week.

The Society commented that the current pattern of services is acceptable but that there is overcrowding at peak times. We asked that the new franchisee should increase the number of carriages to all services (the standard length of train is two carriages). We also mentioned that facilities at stations are generally poor (waiting areas, toilets, accessibility, ticket machines) and that bus links to the Continental Ferry Port are poor and badly advertised. The RPC's report was published in April with a package of eleven improvements. Other local authorities commented, but there was one notable exception - Portsmouth City Council. Is there anyone in the City who has an interest or responsibility for rail transport planning? We think there should be.

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Thomas Ellis Owen 1805-1862 Celebratory Festival

Thomas Ellis Owen, creator of Southsea's 'garden suburb' from 1830-1862, was justly celebrated in the very enjoyable festival in early July. An English Heritage plaque on Dovercourt, his house in Kent Road, was unveiled by his great great grandson, Henry Phythian Adams, watched by junior girls from Portsmouth High School. There was an evening soiree drawing on programmes held in Owen's house in St. Jude's Church, a nineteenth century style flower show, art and sculpture trails, children's activities and puppet shows, and, best of all in a lot of people's view, a splendid play: The 'Ouses in Between, reviewing Owen's achievement based on music hall songs in the new Third Floor Art Centre in the Norrish Central Library - had sly references to the present day, via slides of the Millennium Tower and the Tricorn.

Building on the Society's celebration of Owen ten years ago, two mornings of lectures added much to our knowledge of Owen. David Lloyd discussed whether Owen actually met John Nash, architect and developer of the processional way from Regents Park to Pall Mall and Park Villages West and East which he believes inspired Owen's designs for Southsea.

Owen's special design skill was the landscape and gardens, into which his villas were set. Each villa and terrace is set in gardens, some of them communal still, with trees including sweet and horse chestnuts, walnuts and others. The trees are now very large, and some of the landscape features have disappeared, such as the flowerbed at Dovercourt, It seems to the Society that a landscape survey which would provide guidelines for the restoration of Owen features, and replanting plans as Owen's trees get older would be a fitting way to mark what was a very successful celebration of a fine piece of early Victorian design.

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Southern Comfort

Our South East region is so large that it makes sense to develop interactive networks at sub regional level, especially since the regional spatial guidance will also be subdivided into more local areas. The skill and expertise of societies in from Hampshire, Berkshire, West Sussex, Wiltshire and Surrey and their commitment to improving our villages, towns and cities was very evident at the meeting hosted by the City of Winchester Trust on 16 July 2004 at the Gurkha Museum in Peninsula Barracks. A key discussion was the effect of PPG3 - the Government Office of the South East's (GOSE) pressure on local authorities to allow more and more housing - including on historic environments.

PPG3 and CABE's design guidance 'Better Places to Live' aim to prevent low density housing across the countryside, but local authorities been have given an absolute priority to numbers. If they do not fulfil their quotas, they do not receive the planning grant necessary to fulfil their planning functions. The balance needs to be redressed in favour of design, sustainability and infrastructure in a shared vision. The PPG's design document gave examples of increased density, but not of smaller sites. The Winchester Trust proposed a new level of protection for special towns: 'Heritage Town Status', to strengthen existing conservation area legislation to include highway and transport matters to the Civic Trust, but there has been no response. Greatly increased pressure had made it impossible for local authorities to resist undesirable changes in these towns, which had value for the nation as a whole.

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Training for councillors

As already mentioned, Planning Committees now have the power to refuse applications on design ground, which means that it has become very important that councillors have the skills and confidence to make judgements in this respect. Training them and planners in good design could be an important function of the new Solent Centre for Architecture and Design now based in Southampton Environment Centre. They and the Southern Design Panel based in Chatham Dockyard can play a very useful role in negotiation with developers for better designed schemes - as shown in their cogent (but ignored) criticism of the Fratton Park application.

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MOD disposals

In Hampshire MOD disposals were a particular concern: often these were not anticipated or future land uses discussed in advance of closure. The issue was discussed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Government Association and local MPs. In many people's view, the current Treasury-led system, with Defence Estates as the disposal agency seeking the highest bidder at maximum planning value needed reform in favour of local benefit and decision-making and government objectives such as sustainability and protection of the environment.

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The South East Plan

We are engaged in commenting on the South East Plan which has just been published, especially the poorly drafted South Hampshire subsection. The Core Document is half an inch thick but disappointingly indecisive. It is little more than a wish list, and is full of debatable statements purporting to be facts. It tends to argue the pros and cons of schemes that have for long been agreed to be desirable - LRT. Monorail, park-and-Ride, more freight by rail. What we need is an analysis of why these things don't happen. What stops them? One of its few definite proposals is for the setting up of yet another agency - the Implementation Agency - with powers to implement the strategy. Most people have difficulty with finding room in their minds for SEEDA, SEERA and GOSE. Surely one of these could do the job. Yet another agency is the last thing we need

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The Tricorn

After a long struggle the Tricorn is no more; its site has been unsustainably reduced to an enormous expanse of tarmac, with no plan for rebuilding before 2008. This was just the outcome we foresaw but hoped to avoid when we took our controversial step of applying for listing in early 2004. We had support in the national press and from international architects, but local press censorship prevented any debate about proposals for sustainable reuse by architects Kate Mackintosh, George Finch and Mick Morris. Their plans showed how to exploit the Tricorn's columnar structure which enabled the innovative layering of retail, car parking, wholesale, residential, clubs and pubs. None of the ground floor walls were load-bearing so they could all be dispensed with, leaving a large unencumbered space for new uses.

The great strength of the structure, enabling the first floor to carry large lorries could have supported maisonettes, as part of the popular return to city centre living which the conversion of John Brown's former offices demonstrates. Morris's green planted top glass cascade would have commanded wonderful views over the whole city. Deplorably, despite Centros Miller owning the site for five years, no plans have been made public and there won't be any till August. The only decision is that the John Lewis department store (Knight and Lee) will be relocated from Southsea somewhere onto the site, and Debenhams, having taking over the failing Allders may also move. A celebratory Tricorn exhibition was held in August in the Art in The Park festival in Victoria Park; Robert Cook and Celia Clark are collaborating on a book about the Tricorn's design, rich life, and death.

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Design Awards 2004

The judges this year were Tom Dyckhoff, architectural correspondent of The Times, Tim Clark, local estates surveyor, Bruce Oliver and Celia Clark. There were no worthy entries for Best Landscaping; instead there were two Best New Buildings. They went to Spinnaker Quay - on the former Lucas sailmakers site in Broad Street designed by Panter Hudspith; and to the sparkling Charles Dickens sports and community centre off Lake Road by Daniel Brunt of City Architects.

Best Restoration went to the amazing conversion of a backlands building behind the shops of Albert Road, Southsea, invisible from the street. It had been a coach house and upstairs stable reached via a lift, then a motor garage and now, improbably, it is 11 luxury flats including three wonderful penthouses hidden but overlooking the backs of the houses of Albert Grove. The architect was John Organ of Havant, and the developer obtained all the unusual and very modern fittings locally in Southsea. We also commended a delightful new classroom block at Dovercourt, in Kent Road, the Junior Girls High School.

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Costs of the Tower

Roger Ching, the Council's Strategic Director of Resources, has given us these up to date figures. The forecast outturn cost of the Spinnaker Tower is £39,625,800, funded as follows: Millennium Commission Grant £14,995,500; Contributions in Cash and Kind: £13,584,600; City Council Cash Contributions £11,045,700. The forecast outturn makes an allowance for compensations payable to the contractor and includes all officer time and legal expenses. The City Council Cash Contributions have been funded by redirecting capital funding from other schemes and capital reserves. Effectively this means the money in being found from capital receipts or the Capital Fund. The Capital Fund has been held on the balance sheet for several years as a result of a change in legislation which prevented it from being utilised. It did not become available for use until there was a further change in legislation.

Mr Ching could not quantify the indirect cost to council taxpayers of the deferral of other capital schemes. The scheme concerned (New Theatre Royal) could not have commenced even if the funding from the City Council had not been diverted to fund the Millennium Tower because at that time other funding bodies had not decided whether to support the scheme. Since that time, it has been confirmed that this other funding is not forthcoming, so the scheme will not proceed anyway. Expenditure incurred on the Spinnaker Tower to the end of February 2005 amounted to £35,011,700. Cash shortage might also put paid to the Aspex Gallery moving to the Vulcan in Gunwharf.

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The hard working committee

Our thanks to the hard working committee, and to all of you for providing essential feedback each month! .

Celia Clark, Chairman, April 2005.