Havant Borough Council have initiated the next stage of their Waterlooville Masterplan with draft content put on display to the public at 95 London Road, the old Game shop.
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00:00 I'm Councillor Gwen Robinson, I'm the Deputy Leader at Havenborough Council.
00:04 I'm also one of the ward councillors for Waterlooville.
00:08 We're running a three-day exhibition which will be a follow-up from the public consultation
00:16 that we've already done.
00:17 This is an absolutely perfect opportunity for residents to come along and see what has
00:25 been put together so far through that consultation process with the residents.
00:32 So just to let you all know what we're doing, the short quick wins immediately next, the
00:41 Vation Shop scheme will be relaunched next week and we know that from informal conversations
00:48 that we have some very, very exciting propositions for businesses coming forward.
00:54 We're working on the boxing club to help them with signage and access to the club.
01:00 At the moment the boxing club, which is really popular but it's not obvious, it's a boxing
01:06 club so we want to help them with that.
01:11 We have secured £120,000 of neighbourhood seal money and that we can use that to carry
01:17 out the public realm improvements within the town centre.
01:21 An outline of these designs can be seen at the exhibition.
01:26 So after the exhibition the team at Havant will start the procurement exercise to deliver
01:34 the scheme this summer so that's absolute positive.
01:38 We now have approvals from Hampshire County Council to put our banners up and these are
01:46 being procured and they'll hopefully be up in the next month.
01:49 The banners will be on the lamp posts and these will actually talk about the history
01:55 of Waterlooville, a lot of which many people don't realise what's happened.
02:01 We're also in conversations with a local artist to deliver a significant piece of artwork
02:09 in the town centre, so the street art.
02:12 In a sense very similar to what's been happening in Portsmouth on the end of buildings so we're
02:19 speaking to somebody about that as well.
02:21 Perfect, perfect.
02:22 Are you able to name the artist?
02:24 I'm not allowed to.
02:26 No worries, that's no problem.
02:28 So yeah, it's exciting, the next step of this regeneration plan.
02:31 Obviously Waterlooville has been in the national press a bit this last couple of weeks and
02:36 not in the kind of slide.
02:37 How excited are you to get residents in and to see and to hear their feedback?
02:40 Oh I mean I'm incredibly excited and I'm really pleased with the response that we've had on
02:46 day one and it's still very early in the morning, we've had a lot of people coming in.
02:50 The residents, this means a lot to the residents of Waterlooville, many that have lived here
02:55 all of their life.
02:58 I was very disappointed with the Telegraph article because it painted this picture but
03:04 they didn't speak to us about, we all know the rise and fall of Waterlooville alongside
03:10 many other high streets across the country.
03:14 What's saddened me is they didn't speak to us, they didn't ask us what we're trying to
03:18 do to deal with that.
03:20 We invited them along today, we invited the journalists from the Telegraph and from the
03:25 Daily Mail to come along, see what we're doing and unfortunately they haven't taken us up
03:31 on that invitation which I think is quite disappointing really.
03:35 I'd rather they report what really is happening, not the line that they particularly want to
03:41 report.
03:42 We've got some good feedback here today, you've spoken about some of the short term things
03:48 with the boxing club, what's the time frame from what we see, what residents can see in
03:54 there to actually seeing it into action?
03:57 The short term wins, the time frame for that is 6-12 months, so that's the sort of quick
04:03 wins.
04:04 The long term ones of course, there's still a little way to go, we need to get the supplementary
04:10 planning document done, that's again going to come from all the consultations.
04:15 Once the master plan is there, we can then apply for various funding pots that without
04:21 a master plan we cannot access government pots of money for regeneration.
04:27 We can't go to government and say 'can you give us a few million pounds' and they'll
04:31 say 'what do you want it for?'
04:32 and we'll say 'what do we want to do?'
04:34 They want to see a very, very clear, structured plan and that's the master plan and the intention
04:41 of that.
04:42 Perfect.
04:43 And just lastly, for any residents that want to come along and have a look, how much impact
04:47 will their feedback have over these next few days?
04:50 Huge, huge impact.
04:53 The line we've taken is we're not saying to people 'this is what we want'.
04:58 We all have a generally generic idea of what we want, but it's not us saying to residents
05:03 'well that's what you want'.
05:04 We want residents to come along, which is what they have done, young and old.
05:09 We've had children who are very switched on, they know what they want as well, and everything
05:16 that they tell us will have an impact on the final master plan and the vision and plan
05:22 moving forward.
05:23 I'm Tony Charles from GC Bike Repairs.
05:25 Perfect.
05:26 So yeah, obviously your business has got a couple of shops in Portsmouth you're saying,
05:31 so what would you come down here to say to have a look at?
05:35 Waterlooville is an area that we're looking to expand into.
05:37 Waterlooville haven't, we're not sure where yet.
05:41 So this was an interesting opportunity for us to come and have a look at the development
05:45 plans for Waterlooville because it clearly needs some development to change up what's
05:52 happening here.
05:53 Whether that fits in with our plans, whether we can take the leap early or whether we wait
05:59 or whatever.
06:00 Perfect.
06:01 What are your impressions of the plans?
06:03 I think it's really exciting.
06:05 I mean clearly all town centres have similar challenges if you like, in the sense that
06:11 most of the bigger retailers want to move out of town places and you've got that down
06:17 the way here.
06:18 But revitalising high streets I think is critical.
06:23 Yeah, perfect.
06:25 So yeah, obviously too early to say what it is, but it's promising for something you'd
06:29 be interested in in the future, don't you think?
06:31 For sure.
06:32 I mean I think the mix of residential and retail is interesting.
06:38 I think the fact that they're looking at three routes for cyclists and that's our business,
06:44 that makes a lot of sense for us as well.
06:46 But also it just looks like a friendlier, less concretey urban environment and I think
06:53 that's something that's really important.
06:54 I'm Keith Todd, I live in Cow Plain.
06:55 You live in Cow Plain, okay.
06:56 And you've had a chance to look around at the plans?
07:00 Yes I have, it's impressive.
07:01 There's a lot of work got into it and it needs a sort out.
07:07 It's quite a depressive place, so I welcome it.
07:11 Yeah, was there anything that stood out for you?
07:13 Well all the green areas and things like that, the walkways and stuff and the improvements
07:18 to the whole area really.
07:20 It is a depression, I think everybody can accept it.
07:25 It's quite a depression of all, I'm sorry.
07:28 But yeah, it's good, you know, if it comes to pass.
07:32 Yeah, are you feeling confident that it will do?
07:34 Yes, I could imagine it.
07:36 If it's got finance behind it, we should see some improvements.
07:40 That's the key thing isn't it, really, getting the funds and that.
07:44 I've seen that there's many different holders of the land and such like, so it's going to
07:50 be a challenge to get it all together isn't it?
07:53 Yeah, that's the key, but yeah, fingers crossed.
07:57 I really, really implore people to come along.
08:00 If you couldn't make it to the Festival of Ideas, or you did make it to the Festival of Ideas,
08:05 come along and see what the next steps are.
08:09 Speak to Ferrier Urbanism, there's a big team in there.
08:13 And again, make your views really clear on what we have produced so far.
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