Tuesday, March 24
A halt to the home building
Having reported that Grainger had decided to downgrade the number of homes it intended to build in the West of Waterlooville MDA plan from 1000s of homes to under 200. The company is now reported to have abandoned the idea of building any homes at all in the immediate future.
This is backed up by the complete removal of the portable cabins and digging hardware from near the roundabout. It appears they are not going to be returning soon, as the site is completely deserted. They did however finish building the roundabout, although that took a ridiculously long time as the company seemed to drag its feet. George Hollingbery capitalised today by appearing on BBC news and indirectly suggested he was the person to stop it.
Bizarrely the BBC said the development was supposed to be the biggest development of green housing in the South. They obviously hadn't checked the pathetic green specifications being used by the developers. As stated here in an earlier post, the fact there will be delays in developement, means that by the time the housing market picks up, far tougher green building specs will be in place. Given that the rampant financial gambling of the last decade will lead to tougher lending policies, then the housing market is unlikely to be anything like we have just seen. It will be much more restricted and conservative.
No specific updates about Taylor Wimpey who had people working on their site yesterday. What must be remembered is that both companies still own the land and can apply for new applications to build there in the future. The only thing that will save us from future house building is a major change in policy from central government, or the companies sell or lease the land for agriculture use. Now the land is in the hands of developers it will be a miracle if they do not eventually develop the land, only government intervention is likely to stop them
5 comments:
We should remember that given the rising population were going to need more housing sometime in the near future. However the council has yet again missed a golden oppertunity to create a national standard in ecologically viable housing with this proposed estate. They clearly cant be trusted when it comes to thinking things through. just look at the buslanes being built from horndean and through to purbrook, we dont have enough buses to warrant these bus lanes. i would love to see more use of them but the buses around here are so expensive!!
they should put their thinking caps on and start building. the project would bring secure jobs to the region and be ready for completion when the market settles
Hi Anonymous.
We should remember that given the rising population were going to need more housing sometime in the near future
The UK population is rising largely due to immigration. Also Central government is forcing housing only on the South East. What it should be doing is encouraging a more dispersed development across the nation.
Focusing growth on the South East will in the long term cause really major environmental problems.
However the council has yet again missed a golden oppertunity to create a national standard in ecologically viable housing with this proposed estate
It is the developers that are dictating the standard they are using.
BREAM actually set the build standards (http://www.breeam.org/) that most large developers follow.
The new low carbon BREEAM standards are set to kick in around 2012 I think, so in reality any delay will be good.
i would love to see more use of them but the buses around here are so expensive
Cars are expensive as well, also people tend to make more journeys when they have a car, increasing GHG emissions.
People forget about all the costs of making a car journey, capital cost of buying the car, tyres, maintenance, fuel, oil, road tax, car park fees, driving lessons, driving test, recycling etc.
Yet most people only state how much it costs to park when they make a journey by car. Very few people actually run their car as a business and work out the true costs of a journey.
Correction to my comment.
I think the BREEAM 'carbon zero' standards would be in place for 2016, not 2012.
http://www.breeam.org/newsdetails.jsp?id=466
"Very few people actually ... work out the true costs of a [car]journey"
I agree, however I still would say that British public transport fails to deliver in the quality of its service and the price of fares.
I've taken quite a few train journeys around Britain and Europe. the services here are notabley inferior and definitely overpriced.
"It is the developers that are dictating the standard they are using"
"The new low carbon BREEAM standards are set to kick in around 2012 I think, so in reality any delay will be good"
I agree. Thanks for the point of view I agree that a delay would be beneficial if that is the case.
Would you say that the developers should deliver "what the people want" rather then deciding what they think Waterlooville wants from this estate? If so the community and therefore the council should have more say over the development.
"Focusing growth on the South East will in the long term cause really major environmental problems."
Agreed. My viewpoint is purely selfish however in that as a guy in his early 20's the community in which i have grown up to love has little to offer in terms of a first home in which to settle.
Thanks for the viewpoint, im glad i've found this site as i was beginning to question if people in this town gave a rats!
(also i didnt mean to come across as argumentative, simply interested and inquisitive!)
Hi Danners,
Yes public transport does fail to deliver in some respects. But also i don't think it can ever deliver what many people have in a car.
I think people will just have to accept that. In order for a car to be as efficient as a partly filled bus, the car would have to be run as a 'bus' service, eg. it would have to always carry a number of passengers and never just have the driver!
You can get some pretty good deals on public transport sometimes. My family took the train to Southampton for a wedding last year, as a group it cost about £3 each for a return, which was incredibly good value.
I think local train journeys a quite good, but long distance is expensive. Buses can seem expensive. But then IMO, that is a deterrent to travel, which is probably good!
The problem we have is that cars are so dominant, a lot of business now depends on people travelling further (eg. to a supermarket), where as in the past you had localised business. This causes problems for those that use the bus.
On the issue of whether developers should deliver what people want, the problem with giving people what they want today, means it doesn't take into account what people will need or want in the future.
I think we should take some big steps in design and don't give people a choice!
eg. All developers should build homes that have a more advanced green spec and may not be your traditional 'box'. Then is people want a knew home, they'll have to buy the greenest home.
I'm glad you like the site.
It started as a way of whinging about litter!
It seems to be gradually getting some interest. The problem with searching for Waterlooville using Google is that you just get a load of business web sites.
I think I'm the first to offer an alternative view.
Post a Comment