Petition the council to Reconsider the development plans for the Toys ‘R’ Us site
About
Southampton City Council recently announced plans for a £150m redevelopment of the old Toys ‘R’ Us site in Southampton along Western Esplanade. The site will be developed in 3 phases and will include an office block, 275 flats, restaurants and shops.
City regeneration requires deeper public consultation especially as core services across the city have been scaled, this development has loaned £27m for the first phase of the development with no public consultation.
We believe that the announced plans are short-sighted and miss a once in a lifetime opportunity for a development that could facilitate more economic growth for the city, community provisions or accessible facilities for communities that live or work in the city centre.
Below is one of the images released with the announcement.
Concerns With the Current Plan
Main points of concern for this development include but are not limited to:
A Surplus of empty office space currently in Southampton indicating a lack of potential tenants for the office space planned.
Southampton has an estimated 170,000 sq ft of office space currently available to let. This does not include managed offices and co-working spaces such as the White Building, Regus or the Network Eagle Lab recently created in partnership with SCC.
The fact that so much office space is going unused points to a lack of foresight or creative solutions to a worrying lack of potential tenants for the proposed development and the wider city area.
The retail and restaurant units will displace jobs from elsewhere in the city rather than generate new jobs
City and high street regeneration requires thorough planning to dispose of jobs or footfall traffic to already operational business’. Southampton has around 30 retail and restaurant units currently available to let or otherwise closed in the wider city centre area alone.
This indicates that businesses are struggling to stay open in Southampton - the new units would likely be businesses moving in from elsewhere in the city or lead to current businesses closing due to the extra competition.
The council have stated that they intend to retain existing businesses but have not explained how. If a loan of 27 million is helping to kick-start such a development, the public should be given more details on how the long term solutions factor into the cities development
The residential space will not meet the need for affordable family housing
Due to being in such close proximity to the city centre and the train station it is believed that these will be luxury high priced flats. The council has not announced that any of these flats will be made available for social housing.
The residential space will primarily be used by renters commuting to London further moving the City’s economy towards lower skill and part time employment
With such easy access to the train station the residential space will be idea for people wanting to commute to London and other cities - rather than high skill jobs being generated in Southampton this will make it easier for businesses seeking higher skilled employees to setup outside of the city.
There is also a concern that the flats will be bought as buy to let properties - expanding the portfolio of a few rather then helping residents get onto the housing ladder.
The impact the development could have on pedestrian thoroughfare, particularly for wheelchair users and cyclists
While it is difficult to tell at this early stage what impact the development will have on pedestrian thoroughfare it appears that travelling from one side of the site to the other (e.g. from the station to Asda) will involve either a lot of stairs or having to go around the outer perimeter of the site. This is particularly a concern for wheelchair users.
The council have stated that the building itself will be fully DDA compliant - this cannot be correct as DDA was repealed in 2010 and replaced with the Equality Act. This leaves the question of accessibility still open.
That the plans are very similar to already announced plans for the development of Nelson Gate
Nelson Gate, the site the other side of the train station, is a development set to transform existing 1970’s office accommodation in a similar fashion to the proposed plans.
The development will consist of 247 residential flats, a 224 bed hotel,
42,000 sq ft of office space, a food and beverage offer and creation of a public square.
More information can be found here
This brings the demand for this development further into question
A number of concerns have be raised about this project, we believe the planned development is unsuitable because of these concerns and more. This is part of the reason we would like the council to rethink the current plans or at the very least address some of these concerns properly.
Missed Opportunity
These plans also miss an opportunity for a development which would maximise the benefit of this unique location that lies between the train station and coach station. The opportunity for a development with such strong transport connections to bring visitors into the city while also providing use to residents will not happen again. Although this petition does not aim to dictate what should be developed, we would like to know that the following options have been fully explored.
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Expanding the current coach station
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Providing improved pedestrian thoroughfare for entrance to the city from the two transport hubs, particularly for wheelchair users and cyclists
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That the development be made in conjunction with improving the footbridge over the train lines, particularly for wheelchair users and cyclists
Development of a multi-use space including all or some of the following:
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Development of a conference centre to hold large scale events to bring more visitors to the city – boosting the business of existing retail and restaurants in the city while also raising the profile of the city
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Development of a conference centre to hold smaller scale events for local business and public sector groups to provide professional development and networking opportunities
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Development of adult education and retraining space to support residents adjust to the rise in more modern job types and the uptake in use of artificial intelligence throughout all industries
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Development of community access space to support current community groups and encourage new groups to form improving offerings to city residents
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The development of space to support cultural events such as conventions and eSports competitions
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That the development generates jobs for the city by providing space for businesses not already in abundance in the city
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Development of entertainment complex / leisure centre / ice rink / indoor ski slope / swimming complex – to bring in more visitors to the city centre and give residents access to more activity space
Sign The Petition
If you agree with the points raised here then please follow the link to read and sign the ePetition on SCCs website. If the petition reaches 1500 signatories then the council will debate the petition in order to decide how to respond. The petition closes on 31/10/19.
You will need to sign in or create an account on SCCs website in order to sign the petition.
You can sign the petition if you live, work or study in Southampton - please share so that we can reach the target of 1500 signatories.
Please do not attempt to sign the petition multiple times - aside from being dishonest the council will review signatories and remove suspected false entries.
All information presented here is given in good faith - all reasonable attempts have been made by the author to ensure that the information is free from error.
This site has not been sponsored in any way
If you would like to report a mistake or suggest a change please email
ToysRUsDevelopment@gmail.com