Town Council Planning Meeting Monday 25th June
All Town Councillors were in attendance for the planning meeting with the exception of Meg Mortimer and Susan Scoccia [update: see comments]
The general planning applications reviewed were nothing really compelling to report on.
Except for one, the proposal for a block of ten flats and a three bedroom house in St Catherine Street. (Planning ref: P/00020/07 TCP/28187 – On the Planning Committee agenda to be discussed tonight – suggested decision – Conditional Permission)
It was interesting that the reported view of the new head of Planning (Bill Murphy) was that if that if the application had been allowed to go through with consequent impact on street traffic, then it would be inconsistent with an application just turned down in Newport for the same reason. [update: see comments]
I think what I was hearing was evidence of the new man at the head of planning applying consistency on the Island.
SuperLoos:
First of all this is an IOW Council project, and the IOW Council team were present to consult with the Town Council and give what they called a pre planning application briefing of their current ideas. It is important to stress (their words) that this is not a finished plan but a conceptual view of their thinking.
It looks like construction is due to begin in about November time and Ventnor is one of 4 major projects across the Island to either refurbish or reconstruct loos. I think this is for the major loo plans not just minor repairs etc. The overall budget appears to £800K, and the four major sites are: Yaverland, Brading, Wooton and Ventnor.
The IOW Council are keen to start work in line with the Cheetah construction timetable which is at the same time (ish).
There will be I believe some degree of public consultation during the planning application process (it was not made very clear, it may just mean the plans will be live on the planning web site?).
The team are well aware that the loos are in a conservation zone.
The team showed two plan outlines from an architectural view. The loos looked functional clean and sleek. The current thinking is a different shape consisting of incorporating into the sloping roofs in line with the cliff side (as at present) but the loo area turned 90 degrees from the current position so the design is poking out (so to speak). Naturally everything is DDA compliant, with designs for basic showers, baby changing facilities etc.
In discussion it was agreed that if possible, multi function driers cum washing units would be avoided.
Ventnor Town Council are keen on an attendant, paid for out of minimal entry fees (quite how this would work with children, was not clear).
The concept of different coloured glass window blocks was raised and discussed. Brenda Lawson thought this could be a Ventnor Project involving the community as well as in other parts of the loos (aka the pumping station mosaic and Spring Gardens mosaic, through Helen Goodman)
This was brought up in the context that the IOW Council are devolving public service functions to the Towns and Parishes and this would logically be one of them (note back to Brenda Lawson’s concerns at the TC meeting re problems with devolved powers and lack of resources (human/financial)) to manage effectively.
The IOW Council team said that they had gathered as much opinion as possible from the public. They said there was support for paying for loo use where the facility was clean and well maintained and to a high build quality.
Maria Wilkinson was present from the Arts Unit. Maria raised funding from the Arts Council to commission an artist (Rob Turner) to work alongside and with the architect Andrew Talbot from Biggs Talbot to visualise the thinking behind the loos in Ventnor.
The plans are at a very early stage, but what stood out from the discussion, was the deliberate strategy of IOW Council to integrate an artist with an architect. Councillors felt this was very progressive thinking.
The result of this integration was an early visualisation of a complete flow on of the cascade into a public convenience so everything appeared as one. In fact, if it turned out the way pictured, from the sea, it would be hard to work out what the building was, apart from an extension of the cascade. In other words, cover the loo in plants coming out of the cascade.
They both said the approach of “planting” buildings had been done before (Paris etc).
Also what was nice was the proposal to see if it was possible to flush the loos with cascade water, and use the cascade flow to drive an impeller and generator to make the electricity needed for the loos, therefore making it all sustainable. (Excellent news, Ed)
This could of course be interesting for one of the Ventnor Enhancement Fund projects which is a funicular railway (link added in case people want to see what it is, Ed), powered by water from an impeller in the cascade to run from Salisbury Gardens to the Eastern Esplanade (Victorian in design of course).
Mark Compton-Hall
