The site is currently part of Havant & South Downs College’s campus in Crookhorn. It consists of a number of college buildings and a car park, situated to the south of the campus. The site was a draft allocation for residential development in Havant Borough Council’s former Local Plan. Officers recognised its excellent potential for much-needed housing delivery in the Borough. Policy KP8 describes the site as suitable for “about 95 dwellings”, which is broadly consistent with Places for People’s proposals for up to 100 homes. It is anticipated that this site will be an allocation again.
The site as it is today
The College has aspirations to refurbish and invest in its Havant and South Downs campuses in order to remain competitive as a top-class education facility.
Following the relocation of A-Level learners from the South Downs campus in Crookhorn to the Havant Campus in phases from 2018 to 2019, there has become a large amount of excess space on the South Downs site. As a result, the College concluded it would be sensible to rationalise the South Downs site to create a vibrant campus focused on technical, vocational and professional training – with the south of the site being sold for housing development purposes.
The proposed development site area of 2.65ha currently comprises the South and South East buildings, which are used for teaching, and a car parking area. The capital receipt that will be realised from the land sale will then allow the College to invest money in the refurbishment and remodelling of the existing site to the betterment of the students and quality of teaching undertaken on site.
During the last six months, whilst the campus has been fully operational, the southern car park has been closed – this has demonstrated a current overcapacity of car parking spaces. Following further transport assessments, it has been agreed that the College will invest in 75 car parking spaces as part of the reconfiguration plans for the campus.
As the land has been previously developed, it is classed as a “brownfield” site. Redevelopment of brownfield land is supported in national and local planning policy in principle, since it relieves pressure on remaining undeveloped green spaces.
The site is well contained, with mature trees, hedges and banks surrounding the site to the south, east and west. The existing vegetation along the site boundaries will be retained as much as possible to screen the proposed development from outside views, particularly from College Road.
Photographs of South Downs campus – car park and college buildings
