Fury over major delays over regeneration of run-down Townhill Park estate

More than four years after the first letters went out to residents in Townhill Park telling them their estate was set for a major overhaul, not a single brick has been laid.

Labour council chiefs, who confirmed that £871,000 has already been spent on consultants to draw up the plans, say they had to completely draw up plans are their Conservative predecessors left them without any concrete proposals and say the scheme is "actually moving pretty quickly".

But the Conservative opposition have launched scathing attacks on Labour's handling of the plans, saying they are "chopping and changing" the plans and wasting public money as a result.

Legendary Hampshire comic Benny Hill opened the show home of the new estate back in 1959, which was described by the Daily Echo at the time as "attractive" and "contemporary".

But by 2009 and the flats were ageing and run-down, and council chiefs commissioned consultants Terence O'Rourke to look at how the estate, and others in the city, could be improved in a big regeneration programme.

In March 2011 the first letters went out to residents saying plans to improve Townhill Park were afoot, and 12 months later the Conservative administration unveiled its vision for 675 homes, a new parade of shops and public space.

Artist impression of what the new estate will look like.

Labour replaced the Tories in power in May that year, and after a pause to look at the plans they decided to press on, although increasing the number of council properties.

But more than three years after that and Labour are coming under pressure to move ahead with the scheme, with the Conservatives this week saying increasing building costs mean millions have been "wasted" due to work not starting sooner.

Conservative group leader Jeremy Moulton, who this week repeated calls for Labour housing chief Warwick Payne to resign, said Labour had "abandoned" the funding model organised by his party which would have seen housing associations provide much of the funding and manage many homes.

He said Labour had wasted time first by saying they would put much more council money into the scheme than was originally laid out by the Tories, and now by saying some of it would be funded through a new private development company venture recently approved but not set up yet.

He said: "It's the chopping and the changing of the approach that has led to this.

"We want those homes to be built, people to live in them and to create more aspiration and opportunities for people but we are letting them down."

He said his party's plans, which were being prepared to go forward for planning permission, would have seen millions of pounds from the council's housing and revenue account budget, which is largely funded by rent, available for other projects.

But he said Labour's changes also meant that because more funding was being set aside for Townhill Park, with £62m now set aside for work, it will not be available for other schemes such as proposed Millbrook and Maybush, Northam and Thornhill regeneration schemes, that had been lined up by the Tories.

Cllr Payne has said that there is £20m "with Millbrook's name on it" for the project, which is at a very early stage with local consultation groups not due to report back on what is actually wanted for between a year and 18 months.

But Cllr Moulton said: "There is no money set aside for it, there is money set aside for estate regeneration but that has to pay for other things they are planning to do, like this extra care home at the Woodside Lodge site.

"I doubt we will see anything happening there for a decade."

But Cllr Payne says it has taken time to draw up detailed plans in the first place, saying: "Most of the time hasn't been spent redrawing plans, there has been some of that, but most of it has been spent drawing up the plans in the first place.

"The Tories didn't put together any plans saying 'this is where this house will go' at all.

"It probably seems like the scheme is taking a while to come forward but if you compare it to schemes in the private sector, like that at the former Meridian site, they have taken much longer.

"This is moving faster than their scheme at Exford Avenue in Harefield moved. Instead of Townhill Park being slow it's actually moving pretty quickly.

"We also can't actually start working yet as the buildings need to come down and for that to happen all of the tenants have to have moved out, so we might have to look at compulsory purchase orders to get the last few residents down."

Saying a planning application is set to go in next month, he said £871,000 has been spent so far on consultants from Capita, a firm he pointed out were appointed by the Tories to be the council's private sector partner, in the past three years.

He said adding more council properties would eventually lead to an increased revenue through rent, while the Development Company would not hold up the plan as it should be able to start bringing in funds by the time building work starts.

He says he is hopeful demolition work could even take place at the end of this year or early 2016, with building work starting next year or 2017.

But residents have asked the politicians to put aside their squabbling and get on with the plans which they say will hugely improve the area they live in.

Rachel Burgess, pictured above, a 33-year-old full-time mum from Round Hill Close, said: “This has been going on for what feels like forever and I don’t know why we are still waiting for results.

"It’s become such a run down, tired-looking area "We don’t get told very much about it and bearing in mind they said it was supposed to be done in around 10 years they have spend a lot of time not really doing anything for us down here."

Ruth McLean, 71, pictured above, a university kitchen assistant from Round Hill Close said: “We have been expecting something to happen for years and been given no clue of when anything is going to go up and what the final ideas are.

"The actual idea to give the area a boost is great, I think the roads have become a massive problem, getting onto Townhill Way can be seriously dangerous so I would really like to see that addressed quickly.”

Rassel Khan, 29, pictured above, a freelance IT worker from Meggeson Avenue said: “It’s actually nice and quiet around here now. It’s a good idea to boost the area and I think it will be good for everyone but I’m not holding my breath. The flats have been empty for a while and people have been kicked out but still they haven’t been knocked down and there is no sign of it changing, I don’t know why it is taking so long they should pull their fingers out and get something sorted we are all quite impatient.”

Sarah Wing, 34, pictured above, a customer care worker from Round Hill Close said: “We have been to all the meetings which no councillors seem to come to and heard all the plans but still no proper action has been taken to follow through and it’s now a bit of a ticking time bomb to see what they will actually do.

"I think a lot of residents are concerned that the greenery will go and their children won’t have anywhere nearby to play on but at the end of the day we just have to wait and see, we can’t force them to do anything.”

Twenty-one year-old Brogan Clune, 21, from Meggeson Avenue, said: "There is no sign of anything happening anytime soon though which is really disappointing because there must be hundreds of people on waiting lists to get into a house or looking for affordable homes for their family and there is this derelict massive plot of land where they just haven’t built anything.

And 71-year-old Rosemary Callaway, 71, also from Meggeson Avenue, said: "I think it’s rubbish that we are waiting to find out what is happening, it looks disgraceful and there is no sign of it getting any better.

"I think it’s about time they actually pulled their finger out and kept to their word to create something that the community can be proud of.”