6 March 2018
Businessman Peter Day has refuted safety and security claims made by Fareham Borough Council in its refusal of his plan to build five ‘live/work’ hangar homes on Solent Daedalus Airport.
Planning permission for the units was granted in late February by Gosport Borough Council. However, despite the land being into Gosport’s area, the airport landlord is the adjacent Fareham Borough Council who said the development would “prejudice the council’s vision for Daedalus” and as a result would not allow the project to go ahead.
Council leader Sean Woodward, said: “The council has set out a vision for Solent Airport, investing heavily in airport infrastructure and encouraging aviation growth in general aviation traffic as well as business and corporate travel and some scheduled services.
“Consequently, we anticipate that the area in the vicinity of the control tower will be very active as the vision is delivered.
“Allowing residential development in that location would not only present real safety concerns but would also restrict the Council’s ability to grow the airport operations further and could undermine the overall vision for the airfield.”
Day has had his plan for the hangar homes assessed by an airport expert and believes there are no safety and security issues.
“I’m going to look into all the reasons put forward [by Fareham Borough Council],” said Peter Day. “I’ve not given up on this.
“CEMAST [Fareham collage] wants to build the Velocity kit aircraft [a separate business Peter Day is establishing], 90% of local residents want it, 100% of the general aviation community and local businesses want it. It’s only Fareham Borough Council that doesn’t. They should listen to the will of the people.”
Day makes the point that all five of the live/work hangar homes would be filled by people running bona fide businesses employing staff, thus meeting the key criteria of the Enterprise Zone at the airfield. Hangar Homes
Daedalus Waterfront
In a separate development, 200 homes have been proposed for the Daedulas Waterfront area, outside the airfield limits but using land previously occupied by the Royal Naval Air Station. The project is a joint venture between Wates and Homes England with the design produced by architects JTP. More here
Two areas of housing are proposed for Daedalus Waterfront by Wates and Homes England, on former RNAS land but outside the current airfield. The area on which Peter Day wants to build his live/work Hangar Homes is the other side of the airfield perimeter, within the active area.
4 comments
The will of the people is whatever Fareham Borough Council decides it will be – they’re past masters at asking the right people, and only them.
The problem is probably they’ve decided to locate the Interconnector building where Peter is thinking of putting his homes:
http://www.fareham.gov.uk/planning/ifa2.aspx
Thankfully the IFA2 Interconnector is on the other side of the airfield, not on the proposed site for the live/work hangars. When I met with Fareham Borough Council last year, before I submitted the planning application to Gosport Borough Council, they wanted to use the proposed site for their heritage centre, an old WWII hangar that they wanted to move from elsewhere on the airfield. However, I have left adequate space for that within my site plan next to the Visitor Centre and the Control Tower, so they can do that whenever they want without any impact on the 5 live/work hangars.
Peter,
Look to the cable routing, as the building is on the far side of the airfield where the cables come ashore – at least they were on the last drawing I saw. They can’t go direct across the airfield.
The interconnector will generate about £10 million in revenue for the build, and about £1 Million a year in rent. Simple reason why it isn’t going ashore at Chilling or Fawley.
I don’t object to IFA2, as clearly it will bring in substantial revenue for Daedalus, but what I do object to is FBC’s refusal for the live/work hangars on the grounds that there would provide insufficient employment. The reality is that the 5 live/work hangars are all aimed at aviation-related businesses that will employ between 20 and 25 staff including the owners, which is about 30 times the employment density of IFA2 and about the same as the other business units bordering the airfield.