Plans for new city-centre STEM hub refused
Portsmouth City Council has turned down plans for a new STEM hub in the city centre, mainly because the project would remove trees and affect nearby homes.
At today’s planning committee meeting, councillors looked at the University of Portsmouth’s proposal for a “world-class Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)” building designed to modernise its science facilities.
The plan included specialist labs, workshops, classrooms, computer rooms, social study areas, offices and a lecture theatre.
It also featured event spaces, a café and improvements to the surrounding area, such as new landscaping and safer routes for pedestrians.
Planning officers, however, advised refusal, saying the loss of trees, the effect on the listed Charter House and the impact on a neighbouring home were too serious to ignore.
A university spokesperson said UoP is “disappointed” by this advice. They stressed that the university is “integral” to the city’s social and economic life and brings £505m a year to the regional economy.
They warned that “without new facilities, the university will decline in the highly competitive higher education sector as students and academics will simply be attracted elsewhere.”
They also said current STEM buildings are old, inefficient and spread across seven separate sites.
According to UoP, the new “building alone will deliver 3,500 additional STEM graduates per annum and 100 jobs in Portsmouth with industrial partners such as the Royal Navy,” and “once complete the building will contribute £35m per annum to the local economy.”
A resident living less than 10 metres from the site told councillors the “monstrous” building would overlook their garden and block most of their sunlight.
Some councillors also questioned whether the university would build the project quickly, with Cllr Lee Hunt pointing out that the Victoria swimming baths site still has not been redeveloped.
“I have a doubt, so many developers say they’re going to get on with something and then they just don’t,” he said. He added that “the sense of enclosure for the residents would be enormous and spoil the rest of their living lives.”
The committee followed the officer’s recommendation and refused the plans. The chair said councillors supported the idea of a STEM hub but that the university would need to find a more suitable location.