Trafalgar Wharf, Portsmouth
The opportunity / type:
Mixed use development comprising residential, associated landscaping and parking, flood defence barrier and construction of up to 18,904 sq. m of floor space for business, general industrial and/or storage and distribution uses.
The site is situated within Trafalgar Wharf, Portchester and is a large, marine purpose built area set on partially reclaimed land. The landowners have made some recent investments on the site in the form of new development that provides a functioning wharf to meet the demands of its existing tenants.
However, due to the contraction of large scale shipbuilding and the obsolescence of the majority of the buildings on site, planning permission has been granted to rejuvenate the whole site to provide a modern mixed use development that will attract new investment into the area. The site is located within a well-established employment and residential area and together with its excellent links to the strategic road network and established infrastructure means that the site is well suited to a complementary development of new waterfront residential and quality marine based employment facilities.
Location:
Trafalgar Wharf is situated on the North Western edge of Portsmouth and is situated across the water from Port Solent. It is easily accessible from the M27, which is within a 5 minute drive, providing the site with excellent connectivity to Chichester in the east and Southampton in the west, as well as the national road network.
Details:
Planning status:
Portsmouth City Council has resolved to grant conditional outline permission for a mixed use development comprising up to 163 dwellings in two, three and four storey buildings and one 10 storey building with associated landscaping areas and parking; a flood defence barrier; and construction of up to 18,094sqm of floor space in buildings for businesses (B1), general industrial (B2) and/or storage and distribution (B8) purposes, following the demolition of existing buildings with accesses from Hamilton Road.
Plot size and estimated floor space provision:
The site is 9.42ha (6.62 ha covered in the planning application) in total. Approximately 2.65 ha will provide up to 18,094 sq. m of employment uses. It is anticipated that the split in use classes for these commercial areas will be as follows; light industrial – 43%, general industrial – 23%, storage and distribution – 34%.
| Opportunity | Plot size (ha) | Plot size (acres) | Floor space (sq. ft.) | Floor space (sq. m) |
| Total | 2.65 | 6.55 | 194,762 | 18,094 |
| Light industrial | – | – | 83,743 | 7,780 |
| General industrial | – | – | 44,832 | 4,165 |
| Storage & distribution | – | – | 66,220 | 6,152 |
Development considerations:
- Located within Assisted Area Status ‘C’
- A majority of the site is situated within Flood Zones 2 and 3
- The entirety of the site is situated within an area susceptible to groundwater flooding
- The entirety of the site is situated within a Groundwater Vulnerability Zone
- The coastline surrounding the site is of international and national ecological importance as it is a designated SSSI, SPA and RAMSAR site
- Castle Shore Park SINC is situated approximately 100m to the south of the site
- Castle Street Conservation Area is situated approximately 105m to the south west of the site, containing several listed buildings
- As part of the proposed development, Quadrant Estates have agreed to provide on-site flood defence measures in the form of a barrier and has offered to make a contribution of £3.11m to enable a third party public sector agency (either the Environment Agency or the Eastern Solent Coastal Partnership) to achieve off-site
- flood defences for the wider area and would incorporate measures to mitigate against the impact of the development on nature conservation.
