Given it is now half-term and the Island is welcoming holiday-makers to our sunny shores, OnTheWight thought it would be a good time to share an update on developments along Ventnor’s seafront.
We’ll come to the situation with the Winter Gardens in another post, but as residents and regular visitors to the town will be aware, there are a couple of sites along the seafront where development appears to have stalled for several years: namely Le Veness and The Gaiety.
Le Veness
Derelict for many decades, development at Le Veness site suddenly sprang into action just over three years ago.
Demolition of the old building took place in November 2021 and a year later revised permission was granted for its replacement to be built.
Rather than the six-storey ‘monstrosity’ (modeled on an ocean liner) that gained permission in the early 2000s, the revised plans saw a scaled back version (five storeys), more in keeping with the rest of the esplanade street scene.
Lily: “A complete rethink”
OnTheWight has spoken with the owner, Mark Lily, who explained that in light of landslips in the surrounding area, he’d had a “complete rethink”.
Rather than go ahead with the five-storey block of apartments he has permission for, and which experts say is still possible, Mark is finalising plans with his architect for a “much smaller design”.
He explained,
“It would mitigate the need to excavate all that soil at the back of the site.
“It’s significantly lower, a fair few metres lower, significantly less bulky, and will blend into the street scene much better than the permitted block of flats.”
Mark told OnTheWight that the roof line of the traditional town houses would be very similar to the roof line of the existing buildings in the area.
We’ll keep an eye out for the plans when they go out to public consultation and will let readers know.
The Gaiety
It is almost seven years since ambitions were revealed for the site of the former Gaiety Arcade. In that time we have seen a planning permission granted to replace the former amusement arcade with a new property – designed in style of the former leisure pavilion built at the end of 19th century.
In May 2022, demolition of the former arcade took place, followed in June 2022 by a ferocious fire that resulted in the steel structure being deemed unusable – something the owners had hoped to reuse in order to retain some of the original heritage of the former pavilion.
Since 2022, as far as observers have known, everything has been quiet, with no work taking place on the site.
Finally a response
After several attempts since July 2023, OnTheWight has finally managed to get a response from the owner who helpfully explained why development has stalled.
Malcolm Young, owner of the Gaiety site, told OnTheWight,
“I would like 2025 to be a year of redevelopment and not a ‘summer of no work’, but we need to satisfy the council before we can proceed further.”
He explained that the planning consent granted in 2019 required several conditions to be satisfied before work could begin.
Why the development has stalled
Most of these conditions were dealt with fairly quickly, Malcolm explained, except those where investigative work could only commence once the demolition had been completed.
Malcolm told OnTheWight,
“Mostly, this is to do with ground conditions and design to ensure that the walls supporting the boundaries would be properly protected.
“Whilst we have submitted details to the council and our engineers have attempted to resolve these matters, we have been unable to reach agreement with the consultant advising the council, despite substantial efforts to do so.
“We have reached an impasse and matters are now coming to a head and we will be seeking to engage directly with the council to arrange a meeting of all parties to seek a way forward.”
LPA: Not yet satisfied ground stability issues have been properly addressed
OnTheWight got in touch with the Local Planning Authority (LPA) and a spokesperson confirmed there are currently two applications to discharge conditions relating to ground stability for the site.
They told OnTheWight,
“Having taken advice from its Geotechnical Engineering Consultant, the LPA is not yet satisfied that the ground stability information submitted by the applicant to date adequately satisfies the requirements of the conditions and gives sufficient confidence that the ground stability issues have been properly addressed.
“The case officer for the applications continues to liaise with the Geotechnical Engineering Consultant and the applicant to enable them to overcome these concerns and enable the conditions to be discharged and for the consented schemes to be built.”
“Our wish to carry out the development is as strong as ever”
The Gaiety owner told OnTheWight,
“Our wish to carry out the development of the consented scheme is as strong as ever, but nature and the council’s advisers are proving ‘tough nuts to crack’.”
We’ll also be keeping an eye on this application (P/00664/18) and will let readers know when there is another update.
