Employment Land Workshop

Employment Land Workshop 1 November 2007

Workshop results and ideas map

On 1 November 2007 Havant Borough Council held in association with the Hampshire Economic Forum, an Employment Land Workshop with the aim of contributing to the evidence base that underpins the Havant Local Development Framework ( LDF ).

The Employment Land Workshop sought to engage with key business interests and thereby help to gain a better understanding of the needs and perceptions of the local economy – and the development issues that might arise. Representatives were present from a range of relevant backgrounds: Business, Business Organisations, Property Agents, Planning Consultants, Developers and the Public Sector.

Employment Land Presentation (pdf file 687kb) 

(If this information is difficult to read we can provide it in another format, e.g. in braille, large print, on audio tape or in another language. To request any of these formats please contact Customer Services on 02392 446015)

Contributors were divided into four discussion groups to consider:

1. Issues in the Local Economy
2. Maximising Existing Assets
3. Identifying a Spatial Strategy

The Local Economy

Headline issues (mentioned by more than one group)

1. Upskilling and Retraining: Ever increasing focus on the knowledge economy and increasing the size of the business services sector means ensuring that greater sections of the workforce attain NVQ4 and NVQ2 level qualifications.
2. Flexibility across the Use Classes: Modern business is tending to require operating space that mixes traditional uses i.e. an advanced manufacturer needing office space, or a distribution company requiring research and development space.

In addition:

• There was a strong awareness that one of the Borough’s key strengths is the strategic advantage of its road and rail network, which offers good connectivity - especially to the London area. However, Havant Rail Station is considered in bad need of revitalisation.
• At a secondary level it was noted that a range of more localised links ought to be improved:
• Generally between Waterlooville and the Brambles business area, and between Havant and the Broadmarsh and New Lane business areas.
• The A3(M) junction for Waterlooville was considered inadequate to ensure the success of business ventures at Newlands the Major Development Area (MDA) to the west of the town.
• Similarly it was felt that junction improvements would be needed along the London Road, Waterlooville.
• For the future, ease of access between the Dunsbury Hill business development area and long-term plans for a storage reservoir at Havant Thicket was also considered important.

• There were number of comments about business space matters and the overall image of the Borough:
• The success of initiatives like Langstone Gate needed to be consolidated and replicated in other places so as to ensure the long-term viability of the local office-based economy.
• Generally smaller units were deemed more appropriate for the town centres; larger ones should be located in proximity to the strategic road network.
• The Dunsbury Hill development area – crucial to future business success – needs to be set off by a quality landmark feature.
• General feedback tended to support the notion of marker features right along the strategic road network – but especially at the main A27 gateway south of Havant town centre.
• A few comments inferred that the Borough’s main towns lacked identity.

Maximising Existing Assets

Headline issues (mentioned by more than one group)

• Natural cycle / Filter-down: One of the questions the Council posed was how to get the best out of existing industrial estates. Comments tended to suggest that there was a natural cycle whereby, essentially, what appear to be less attractive units and locations actually provide a useful first location for start-up activities.
• A noteworthy comment that one group in particular kept returning to was the importance of improving signage to, and within, industrial estates

Identifying a Spatial Strategy

Headline issues (mentioned by more than one group). The following list - in order of priority - reflects the importance that it was felt needed to be given to specific projects:

• Dunsbury Hill: Opinion was unanimous about the centrality of this scheme to the Borough’s future economic vibrancy and image as a business location. In every sense it is considered a priority. Success here was seen as being a catalyst to improving the Borough’s two main town centres of Havant and Waterlooville.
• Town Centres: There was widespread support for introducing more office-type uses into the Borough’s main town centres, but that this needed to be done in the context of schemes offering a variety of uses - notably leisure, retail and residential.

• One group also identified the industrial area of Brockhampton Lane, Havant, to the south-west of the existing town centre, as having office-led redevelopment potential.
• Another group articulated challenges in creating simultaneously a successful MDA at Newlands and a more vital town centre in Havant. There are issues about the exact type of uses being promoted that need to be addressed carefully.
• It was also stated that the MDA at Newlands needed to be developed against a longer time-horizon so as not to detract from efforts to create a regionally significant business location at Dunsbury Hill.

• Broadmarsh: There was general agreement that development to the west of the existing industrial area would be desirable, indeed potentially very attractive to the market. The latter condition is however tied to maximising the coastal aspect that the location benefits from, and this would imply a marine-led scheme embracing a marine technologies cluster, with additional scope northwards to the A27 for numerous uses including interpretation centre/conference facilities, R&D, office and industrial uses. Those present generally acknowledged that such a scheme was ‘for the future’.
  
• There was also mention of industrial development at the Forty Acres Farm site south-west of Bedhampton. This, it was proposed, would be linked to a new Parkway rail station and associated park and ride facility.
  
• North Hayling: More than one group identified the northern part of the island as having potential for optimising the existing marine sector at Northney. One group identified synergies between such a proposal and encouraging a marine-led cluster at Broadmarsh.

Employment land workshop ideas map