The Lymington Society

 

Redrow flip chart - summary of comments/questions from the floor

At the public meeting on 4^th April 2011 we made notes on a flipchart as speakers from the floor made their comments and asked questions. We had more than forty comments /questions in total – see summary of main points below:

1. Additional traffic/ queues/ parking problems (more than 15 comments)

The greatest concern was the additional traffic a large scale development would bring to Lymington. Specific points:

·        traffic jams and tail-backs on Bridge road particularly at peak times;

·        additional traffic would turn quiet country lanes in Boldre and Pilley into ‘rat runs’

·        scepticism about results from the traffic model commissioned independently by Redrow and reliability of the traffic study produced by HCC Highways, which estimated an additional 90 traffic movements per hour at peak times for a development of 300 dwellings (which CE commented was deemed acceptable by Highways)

·        inadequacy of the parking spaces allocated to each dwelling unit

·        parking problems created by additional cars without parking allocation on the development would create on near-by residential streets

·        impact of introduction of traffic lights linked to level crossing and higher volumes discharged from larger capacity WightLink ferries.

2. Lack of affordable housing/lack of future for young people (4 comments)

There was great concern that the development would do little to ease the lack of affordable housing in Lymington, the problem of the aging nature of the town and the need for work and housing to give young people a “chance to make a life here”. Specific points:

·        the new Redrow proposal reduces the affordable housing allocation to around 20% of the proposed 150 dwelling units i.e. around 30 units

·        one speaker estimated that Redrow would have to charge approximately £500k on average per unit to break even if they paid £30m for the site

·        the loss of industrial use at the site might create a precedent for change of planning use residential e.g. the New Forest Ice Cream site, adding further to lack of employment on which you could support a family locally.

3. Lack of infrastructure (4 comments)

Another issue was the lack of infrastructure to support the population increase. Specific comments on:

·        Priestlands school is already full to capacity

·        would the new development need a dedicated medical facility (CE said it would not be needed)

·        the wear & tear on the bridge and other local roads from the increase in traffic and who would pay for it.

4. Design/ materials/ height/ loss of views (4 comments)

It is early days and Redrow did not present a detailed design for their new proposal. However the meeting brought out a clearer picture of what Lymington residents did and did not want. Specific comments on:

·        over-dominant height of proposals and how this would affect views around the town particularly from Walhampton towards the town

·        people did not want “an estate” or a design of formal symmetry

·        while no one expressed a strong preference for a particular style (e.g. Art Deco, Georgian, etc) what they definitely did not want was just another identikit housing estate which could be seen anywhere “from Croydon to Glasgow”

·        the development should be “part of Lymington”, i.e. integral to the town not a separate community; the design should reference what already exists in town

·        something specifically created for the site; one of the last remaining prime waterside sites on the South Coast deserves a unique design; something we can be proud of.

5. Status of previous permission (2 comments)

Would Redrow guarantee that the previously approved proposal for 300 residential units was “dead in the water”? Redrow would not guarantee that they would not revert to it - as they pointed out this was what our representatives had approved.

Also the restaurant scheme could be abandoned just like the hotel as Redrow admitted no enterprise had expressed any interest in running a restaurant to date on the site. This drew the comment that without a restaurant, there would be less reason to visit “the best spot in Lymington”.