In response to the CAP's concern about the lack of on-site parking and the fact that there would be a need to park far more cars in an area where all parking space was already fully committed the Officer's Committee Report stated:

"Whilst providing parking on the site may be desirable, the site is located on a bus route and close to local services and the layout provides the opportunity for appropriate cycle storage for each dwelling. Therefore alternative modes of transport are available for the development and in accordance with the maximum parking standards contained in the Local Plan, an objection on grounds of parking could not be sustained."

The City has classified this specific location as being in the lowest zonal category of having access to available public transport therefore qualifying for the full Hampshire County allowance for car parking. Therefore the plans are not in accordance with the maximum parking standards contained in the Local Plan.

Cars in Copnor

Cars provide the ability to undertake complex journeys without losing time for public transport connections. The highest dependency on cars on Portsea Island is in North and East of the Island (North End East of London Road, Copnor and Baffins). This arises from the historic layout of fairly dense housing and very few main roads resulting in there always having been a poor access to public transport close to most of the households. This state of affairs has existed for many years and has never been remedied or tackled by housing planning or transport planning. Therefore with the rapid growth in car ownership assisted by a good second hand market and rising real incomes the dependency on cars in this specific zone gradually increased. With economic development people living in smaller houses and lower income areas have become more dependent on cars to get to work. Where families remain together there is a high proportion of households in Copnor with more than 3 cars. Where houses are shared there is invariably more than one car per residence. Over 80% of the households in these zones own a car.

A public transport system that is not fit for purpose

Indeed, as a result there is almost a "tradition" that the residents in these areas seldom use public transport because the options were always so poor with more complex journeys such as getting to work in the main industrial zones (Segensworth, Gosport through to Havant) being extremely slow and expensive. For example a person earning £6.50/hour ends up with the equivalent to £4.80 per hour taking into account the public transport fare and the extra 2 hours (return trip) journey time whereas a car results in a net income of £5.67 per hour taking into account the price of fuel and extra 1 hour (return trip) journey time. This transport system deficiency is exacerbated by the inadequate frequency of services or non-existence of services outside "day shift" time frames and late, early or night shifts are not accommodated by the transport servicing Copnor. In other words the local transport system is a significant constraint on the options for people to maintain a normal and flexible ability to be available for work and thereby maintain a satisfactory relationship with their employers. For people to possess the flexibility to take advantage of the work being offered then the use of a car is essential. These facts are well known to anyone with an understanding of Portsea Island.

Get on your bike. ..

In some cases the use of bicycles and train services are a mode of transport but given the poor state of provisions of cyclists, the general danger in the approaches to industrial zones with busy rush hour traffic and no cycling provisions, this mode of transport is not to be recommended nor should it be promoted because of the real danger of accidents. The bicycle-train-bicycle mode for going to work is not practical for many people because of their fear or accidents and for many people over 40-50 years of age this is stressful. The ‘car’ remains the only viable means of securing relatively safe access to work within a reasonable time as well as providing the freedom to be sble to offer one's services at any time according to the shift schedules. Again these basic facts are well known to people living on Portsea Island.

Dishonesty or plain ignorance?

As is evidentr from the above analysis, the statement by the planning officer that:

"... the site is located on a bus route and close to local services and the layout provides the opportunity for appropriate cycle storage for each dwelling. Therefore alternative modes of transport are available for the development and in accordance with the maximum parking standards contained in the Local Plan..."

is completely misleading and, indeed, does not accord with the facts concerning the well known state of affairs in Copnor and the surrounding areas on Portsea Island. The planning officer's comments are without merit and unsupportable in terms of people who live in Copnor but who need to maintain a travel flexibility to remain in employment.

Prejudicial prevarication?

On the other hand such a ridiculous reply by the planning officer to a substative concern expressed by the CAP could be the planning officer's attempt to hoodwink the residents by kicking their concerns into the long grass on the basis of a collection of citations of irrelevant considerations. If this is so it constitutes a poorly camouflaged attempt at prejudicial prevarication combining unacceptable professional practice and a lack of ethical standards.

Who is going to live in the houses?

The planning officers comments remain valid only if the intended occupants of the houses to be built are people who are out of work and who will not be bothering to seek gainful employment. Hopefully this is not his understanding of the purpose of this "development".

To see the location of this site in relation to accessibility and parking standards click here
To view the map for Accessibility and parking standards for the whole of Portsea Island, click here
In order to view the relationship between the number of bedrooms per unit and parking allowances (note site is in low accessibility zone) click here