The Evidence of the Lymington Society
to the
The Public Inquiry into the Appeal by Paxton Holdings for a Care Home on the Webb’s Site at Bridge Road on the 17th of April 2007
The Lymington Society
The Lymington Society is an established part of the planning framework in the Lymington area, being consulted widely by the planning authority, the New Forest District Council, on all matters relating to planning in the New Forest Region and in Lymington in particular.
The Society has over 400 members and plays an extremely active part in representing the opinion of the local community concerning planning matters. We regularly appear at Public Inquiries presenting evidence concerning applications which we feel would harm the character of Lymington or which would have a detrimental effect on the amenities that the local population have a right to expect.
We were recently instrumental in successfully petitioning the New Forest District Council concerning the abuse of PPG3 by developers, which has resulted in overdevelopment of some parts of the town with unsuitable schemes. In response to our petition the New Forest District Council passed a motion drawing the attention of their Planning Officers to the need to protect the character of surrounding areas when examining contentious planning application.
The involvement of the Lymington Society with the Webb's Chicken Factory Site
Our involvement with the Webb’s chicken factory site dates from the closure of the factory some four years ago when we set up a working party examining what opportunities could be created for the town on the unique site.
We were also pleased to join a Committee which was set up to examine the future of the site. This Committee included representatives from the New Forest District Council, Lymington and Pennington Town Council, the Lymington Harbour Commissioners, and other representative bodies and individuals from the town.
This Committee met several times and took evidence from local people which resulted in a report which was forwarded to the New Forest District Council for their consideration.
Building on this report, the New Forest District Council instituted a wide ranging Consultation Exercise which we again were pleased to take part in and we eventually submitted a wide-ranging dossier on our thoughts on the development of this unique site.
From This Consultation Exercise, The New Forest District Council developed the Supplementary Planning Guidance from which the ground rules for the future negotiations on the development of the site were drawn.
The site owners then invited tenders from different developers and eventually three developers were chosen to put forward differing plans. These plans were presented to representatives from the local Town Council and the Lymington Society at a Special Consultation Meeting held at the Lymington Community Centre.
Again through this mechanism, local opinion was canvassed on the suitability of the various schemes and the Lymington Society submitted a detailed dossier to the owners on the suitability of the various schemes.
Finally the site was bought by bought by Paxton Holdings and a first Planning Application was forthcoming which was rejected by the New Forest District Council. A revised application was then submitted which was given planning permission. It is clear from correspondence, which is now on file, that considerable negotiation took place between the planning authority and the developers to achieve a balance of elements from the original supplementary planning guidance between the commercial needs of the developers and the reasonable expectation of the community, that they also should benefit from this unique site.
Many felt locally however, that the planning authority had been overgenerous to the developers in allowing them a very large residential element, much of which did nothing to address the local housing needs, with insufficient return to the community in terms of elements which many in the town wished to see included.
The Society opposed both applications on the basis that although many of the ideas developed from the original consultations and from the Supplementary Planning Guidance were incorporated in the eventual scheme, the density of residential development and the type of residential development favoured by the mainly small flats, was very much at variance with the Supplementary Planning Guidance and was likely to detract greatly from the vibrancy which we hoped to see on the site.
We were pleased however, that despite the huge increase in residential development compared with the supplementary planning guidance level of 25%, that the planners had negotiated away, the hotel was retained as an integral part of the development.
As can be ascertained from this description of the consultative processes in which we have been involved, this site is unique in the level of consultation which has taken place with a large amount of input from local people and organisations.
This degree of consultation and community involvement, which is very much in the spirit of the changes which have taken place recently with the introduction of revised planning guidance, is unprecedented and has come about because of the unique nature of this site.
Everyone recognises that sites of this important do not come along very often. Here we have a one-off the opportunity to put in place, virtually in the centre of the town, the facilities that a modern and thriving and expanding town needs to have, as well as the incorporation of elements allowing the owners of the site to produce a reasonable return to allow the development to go ahead.
The development of the Webb’s Site
The concept for the development of this unique site, which most people- including the planners, came to accept, was as a vibrant extension to the town centre rather than simply as a dormitory site. This of course meant that the previous use of the site as a major employment site had to be lost. However there was general consensus that this was not a suitable site for industrial use and that government guidance public access to the riverside sites and their use for residential accommodation rather than industry, should be followed.
The task of creating
this new extension to the town centre is of course complicated by the division
of the town centre from the site by the railway line. Nevertheless due to its
very close proximity to the centre of the town, with the Quay and High Street
within walking distance and with so much of the site bounded by the
In order to overcome the isolation of the site from the town and increase the chances of commercial activity being successful on the site, the Lymington Society has produced designs for an innovative bridge linking the site directly to the area, which has produced favourable support locally, including from the NFDC. In addition we proposed the use of a river ferry to help overcome the separation caused by the railway
In a town centre, as well as residential accommodation, which is often found over the shops or offices, it is usual to find shops, restaurants, businesses, hotels, offices, and a mix of community uses.
This was exactly the sort of lively, mixed use, vibrant waterfront town centre, which all the consultation pointed to as the best way forward for this unique site.
Although much of this did come through into the second application which was approved, pressure from the developers for a sufficiently large residential component to defer the cost of an employment offset scheme on the nearby Ampress Park industrial estate, led to an exceptionally high level of residential accommodation of entirely the wrong sort to create a vibrant waterside community.
Almost without exception the dwellings are small two or three bedroom flats with very few of the live-work units which could have reinvigorated this part of the town. In addition there are almost no retail units and very little to draw visitors to the newly created riverside walk other than one restaurant.
As has been seen in other similar developments in the town, where small two and three-bedroom flats have been built, large numbers of the flats are bought for holiday homes and are rarely lived in or visited.
The Need for a Hotel
From the original blueprint drawn up by the Webb’s Site committee of local bodies, only the hotel remains as the major component of vitality which will bring reasonable numbers of people to the site on a regular basis.
The original reason for suggesting a hotel on this site was that as well bringing life to the site, it would also provide a valuable community facility for meetings, conferences, employment and social functions such as weddings etc.
As Lymington has grown in the meantime
and as mini-breaks and tourism within the
Despite reservations from some quarters,
the fact remains that despite the undoubted success of
This is now agreed by most people involved in the commercial life of the town including the Chamber of Commerce. It is generally also agreed that whether it be a budget hotel or a high-quality hotel the siting of the hotel will be crucial to its success.
It is almost certain that there is no other suitable or similar site where such a hotel could be developed other than the current one under discussion
Turning to the proposed new use for the site as the Care Home.
Provision of care homes is an important part of the requirement of a viable community.
However the fact remains that there has been the successful development of several new such homes in the area recently and most have been successfully located in more outlying areas of the town. To put it bluntly a care home could be successfully built anywhere within the confines of the town with reasonable access to the roads system. There are in fact already seven care homes in the immediate area of Lymington with only one of these, Monmouth House occupying a prominent High-Street position.
The most recently built care home has been built on the main road out of the town at Pennington and despite its position, it is now fully occupied. This demonstrates that it is not necessary to have a prominent position with attractive views to enable a care home to be financially successful.
A hotel however, especially if it is to draw visitors to the town, would have little chance of success unless it was in a prominent and attractive position, such as the one under discussion on the Webb Site.
It would therefore be a very great loss to the town if this ideal site for a hotel was “wasted” with a care home which could easily be built on one of the many development sites being created all over the town by the amalgamation of several large gardens, as is currently taking place.
Summary
In summary, this unique and attractive site has been the subject of an unprecedented level of local consultation which has produced a coherent plan designed to reinvigorate an old industrial site and incorporate it into the town centre. From this consultation the official Supplementary Planning Guidance was developed by the local authority
Despite several departures from this Supplementary Planning Guidance, some important elements of the original plan have remained in the current planning permission. Without a doubt the most important of these elements is the provision of a high-quality hotel on the site.
In order to maximise their already large profits, with a rumoured asking price of £25 million for the site, the developers are seeking to remove one of the cornerstones of the original concept, despite having already successfully persuaded the authority to exceed by a large amount, the original residential percentage set out in the supplementary planning guidance.
The Society feels that this is a cynical attempt to further maximise the profit on the site and to renege on the agreement made with the local authority, which enabled the original planning permission to be supported by the authority.
They truly seem to wish to have their cake and eat it.
To grant a care home on this site, when there are many other sites which would be much more suitable, would be to deny for ever the chance of Lymington having a quality hotel built in the town and would deny the town the community benefits already outlined above,
Finally in combination with the unfortunate overprovision of small flats, likely to become rarely visited second holiday homes, the provision of a care home rather than a hotel on the site would remove any hope of vitality from the site, endangering the restaurants and any other businesses which might come to the site eventually.
The site would truly become a quiet, dormitory area of retired or frail old people, rather than the lively riverside community originally envisaged.
We urge the Inspector to reject this application and insist that the developers live up to the obligations they entered into with the local authority, when they persuaded them to allow such a high residential allocation in the current planning permission. To do otherwise would be to allow a coach and horses to be driven through a carefully negotiated agreement and remove almost any community benefit from this unique site.