It was great to see so much community support this morning about the Howard Mallett (CityLife) building and St Matthew’s Piece. Let’s hope we can bring this to a decent conclusion and focus next year on the fantastic positive opportunities we see ahead. This is a press release from the community speakers to follow up on the comments that we made:

30 November 2016

Members of the local community spoke at the Planning Committee meeting today. They issued the following press release:

“We are all determined – as we believe the developer (Chard Robinson) also is – to ensure there is good community access to the Howard Mallett Centre building. Chard Robinson have done excellent work to improve the building, and everyone is united in wanting to see it being used, in a way that rightly respects the local community.

“Today’s meeting demonstrated that there are some issues which need to be resolved, but we feel these can be dealt with in time for the next meeting on 4th January.

“The Community Access Agreement, one of the few key outstanding issues, has moved forward immensely, but is not in a final form. The Planning Committee made a correct decision today for a deferment, that should enable a finalised version to be presented for approval on January 4th.

“Petersfield, where we live, is an area acknowledged by the Council to be extremely short on both public open space and community facilities. We have worked hard to ensure these are protected. Whilst the situation with the Howard Mallett Centre is not ideal, as a result of decades of problems with the site, we think a good Community Access Agreement that also meets the needs of the developer should be achievable.

“Other issues, relating to the instrusion of new paths onto the protected open space, and the plant for ventilation of the building, will require further discussions. Again, we will be working constructively with the Council, and the developer, to ensure a sensible way forward can be found on what should not be insurmountable problems.”