5:20pm Tuesday 27th July 2010
By Gareth Lewis
IT’S full steam ahead for one of Southampton’s biggest housing schemes.
Fears that the £500m Centenary Quay development could become a casualty of the economic slump will be put to bed tomorrow when a Government minister officially launches it.
Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, will lay the foundation stone for the project on the former Vosper Thornycroft shipyard in Woolston.
A total of 1,620 homes are earmarked for the site on the banks of the Itchen. As many as 3,000 people are expected to live there in a mixture of 1,472 flats and 148 town houses.
It had been widely feared the project – named the 13th most important development in Britain by a leading industry magazine – could have become the latest in the city to fall victim to the financial woes of the construction sector.
Debt-laden developer Crest Nicholson was taken over by its creditors last year and is the subject of a £350m takeover bid.
City council leader Royston Smith, who will join Mr Pickles in laying the foundation stone, hailed it as the solution to some of the city’s housing shortage.
He said: “It’s great news that we are finally starting the development of Woolston. There were times when I had concerns but I remained optimistic throughout because it was the right thing to do. It’s what is needed in Southampton. With 14,000 families on the housing waiting list we need to be creating homes for them.
“There’s a massive supply and demand issue and this will go some way to addressing that and create jobs in construction and breathe new life to Woolston High Street.”
A Government grant from the Homes and Communities Agency will support the creation of more than 400 affordable homes – around a quarter of the total – over the lifetime of the development, as well as an energy centre to heat and power the site.
Superyacht builder Palmer Johnson also has planning permission to build a new shipyard on the site.
City bosses, who granted planning permission in 2008, say the site will be transformed into a vibrant and thriving, mixed-use waterfront community with high quality housing, a marine business park, shops and leisure facilities.
But the plan has attracted a wave of criticism from people living in Woolston who fear the influx of new residents will create a parking nightmare and long rush hour queues over the Itchen Bridge.
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