Minutes:
The Planning Officer presented the report. Peter Hayward, Island Highway & Transport Consultants, and Trevor Mose, Head of Property and Capital Development, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, were present for this item.
The Planning Officer drew attention to the Supplementary Matters which reported that:
Comments
The consultation period for the application expired on 4th December 2020.
No public representations received.
The following consultee comments have been received:
Public Health Development Manager
'In accordance with Policy PCS14 of the Portsmouth Plan, it is necessary for the developer to consider the broader implications of development in terms of promoting healthy behaviours and avoiding negative impacts on the health of hospital staff, patients and residents. '
In discussions with the applicant, the following points have been noted:
· Consideration has been given to minimising noise and pollution to neighbouring residents during construction phase;
· The Hospital supports increasing a modal shift towards more sustainable means of transport to the private car for staff;
· Measures have been included in the design to ensure disabled access to the building;
· Proposals for hospital gardens on the site and within the wider Hospital grounds to enhance patient recovery and wellbeing;
· There is a need to ensure safe pedestrian movements around the site during construction, including for people with disabilities and limited mobility.
Natural England
Natural England has commented that there could be the potential for the development to impact on the Solent Special Protection Areas (SPA) due to increased waste water and nitrates. This matter is addressed in paragraphs 5.40 and 5.41 of the committee report. The Local Planning Authority has determined that the development would not have a significant effect on the Solent SPA.
Parking matters
A Transport Assessment (TA) Addendum document has been submitted (Project Centre, November 2020). This document provides further information about the staff and patient parking demand from the development and considers the worst case scenario to ensure that parking mitigation measures will be sufficient. A further statement about staffing has also been provided.
Key points from this
additional information are as follows:
· To expand upon paragraph 1.12 of the committee report, the applicants have confirmed that initially the new ward would be occupied by services relocated from the main hospital building, allowing upgrade works to take place within the existing building. Therefore, initially there would be no new staff and this scenario could continue for 6 months to a year. Following this period, the ward would then start to be used to accommodate new service, at which point new staff would be required. As a worst case scenario, based on full occupancy of a 72 bed ward, 87 new full time equivalent staff would be generated.
· For the purposes of the TA, the worst case scenario of 87 new staff has been taken into account, which would amount to a requirement for up to 46 additional staff spaces.
· Public parking demand - Based on a worst case scenario of full occupancy of the ward by new patients, this could increase public parking demand by up to 6%, resulting in a peak additional demand of up to 30 public vehicles between 2pm and 3pm weekdays.
· Proposed to covert staff parking spaces within the existing multi-storey car park to public use. These would be displaced to the Fort Southwick Park and Ride.
· Park and Ride parking capacity - A further Park and Ride capacity assessment has indicated between 390 and 442 available spaces daily.
· Park and Ride shuttle bus capacity - A more detailed assessment has concluded there would be sufficient capacity on the shuttle buses at all times of the day to accommodate increased demand from additional staff use.
· Construction period - There would be a phased construction programme and a Parking Mitigation Plan has been prepared to demonstrate how the loss of parking spaces from the North Car Park during each phase, and on completion, will be mitigated.
The Council's Highways Engineer has agreed the TA Addendum and Parking Mitigation Plan. The Mitigation Plan will ensure that during all stages of construction and upon completion of the development, there would be sufficient numbers of public parking spaces re-provided within the Hospital Site to accommodate the loss from the North Car Park. This would be facilitated by re-allocating existing staff spaces on-site to public use and transferring the staff spaces to the Fort Southwick Park and Ride. The Parking Mitigation Strategy is enclosed for reference.
Recommendation
Changes to recommendation, amended Condition 5, re Transportation matters:
The development shall be carried out in accordance with the Parking Impact Mitigation Plan prepared by the Head of Property and Capital Development, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, dated 9 December 2020. Any amendments to the agreed Mitigation Plan must first be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority prior to implementation.
Condition 8 (Landscaping) has been corrected to remove reference to 'dwellings' in part b:
(a) No construction works above the foundation / slab level shall take place until a detailed scheme for soft landscaping to include plant species, sizes and numbers (including replacement trees), planting pit and preparation details, and maintenance plans, has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority;
(b) The soft landscaping scheme shall be carried out in accordance with the approved details in the first planting season following the occupation of the building or the completion of the development, whichever is the sooner;
(b) Any trees or plants which, within a period of 5 years from the date of Practical Completion of the landscaping scheme, die, are removed or become seriously damaged or diseased shall be replaced in the next planting season with others of similar size and species.
Members' Questions
In response to questions from members, officers explained that
· A transport assessment has been carried out on car parking at the hospital for the current application and further assessments are being undertaken. Although parking at the hospital is sometimes under-used, particularly during Covid-19 when there have been fewer visitors, there are still issues at peak times.
· The proposed ward is subject to a funding bid which is why the application has been submitted now and not together with the application for a new multi-storey car park in the northern part of the North Car Park. It needed to be submitted as matter of urgency before other projects are considered.
· Parking is still under discussion and has not been fully worked through yet. However, it might be worth the applicant considering working with Stagecoach's demand responsive system (similar to Uber) where people can book bespoke rides.
· The proposed ward is not linked directly to the main hospital building. It would be linked to the Rehab Unit, which in turn is linked to the main building by a bridge.
· Peter Hayward said there are about 3,500 on-site staff parking permits. The ratio of permits issued to spaces is 2:1. There are 220 spaces for staff at the Park & Ride facility at Fort Southwick, which is served by a shuttle bus, so there is plenty of scope to transfer some of the on-site staff permits to the Park & Ride. He is not aware of problems with staff parking in the surrounding area as much of it is in residents' parking zones. He is happy that the proposed parking mitigation strategy is sensible in view of the displacement caused by construction and longer-term parking loss.
Members' Comments
· There may be more hostility to the application for the multi-storey car park than the ward as they are inherently linked and parking has the potential to be a problem. Concerns in nearby Residents' Parking Zones are more about parking by visitors than staff though it is difficult to police. There have been concerns about parking outside the zones, for example, Mulberry Lane, Cliffdale Gardens and the caravan park on the hill. Therefore, it is important that the hospital maintains enough parking on-site. On-site parking can never be fully replaced, for example, it is essential for emergencies, and off-site mitigation is not always satisfactory.
· Sometimes people all seem to want to park in the same car park when others have spaces.
· Members thanked NHS staff for everything they are doing during Covid-19.