Plans for the major regeneration of Newport Harbour will once again head out for consultation.
However, the decision to include the option of housing on Seaclose Park has been criticised.
Sparking regeneration
The consultation seeks to progress the regeneration, which could see a footbridge over the River Medina, a hotel, a multi-storey car park and other big projects in the harbour at the centre of the county town.
The Isle of Wight Council’s cabinet agreed the move on Thursday.
Brodie: Housing on Seaclose Park a ‘disgrace’
The idea of housing on Seaclose Park, reinstated in the consultation, was called a ‘disgrace’ by Cllr Geoff Brodie, chair of Newport and Carisbrooke Community Council, who said he suspected the community council would be in unanimous opposition to the housing.
Cllr Brodie referenced the public petition carried out by local ward councillor Matt Price at the time of the previous consultation in 2020, which was successful in seeing the Conservative administration remove the Seaclose Park housing from the plan.
Brodie: Green recreational site
Speaking at the cabinet meeting, Cllr Brodie said the area was important to residents as it was an urban area with a limited number of recreation grounds.
He also said the council were seemingly ignoring brownfield sites to develop, like Camp Hill, in favour of the greenfield, recreation site.
Stephens: ‘Not final by any imagination’
Cllr Ian Stephens, cabinet member for housing, said Camp Hill was not owned by the council, whereas Seaclose was so they would concentrate on their assets.
However, the housing on Seaclose, he said, ‘was not final by any imagination’.
Fuller: Must get affordable housing element right
Cabinet member for planning, Cllr Paul Fuller, said they needed to get the affordable housing element right there and would listen to what the residents of Newport told them.
Jones-Evans: Focus on entire plan not ‘one tiny corner’
Cllr Julie Jones-Evans, regeneration cabinet member, said one housing option had been ‘pulled back drastically’ and urged people to focus on the entire plan during the consultation, and not ‘one tiny corner’.
Once the outcome of the consultation had been considered, the council could make further changes and approve it as a supplementary planning document, which Cllr Jones-Evans said would help ‘de-risk’ the project.
She said it would give assurance to investors the council was behind the project, so they could start to bring parts forward.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
Image: Mark Konig under CC BY 2.0
