Let's Slow Down The Traffic In Freemantle

As local councillors for Freemantle Ward, speeding traffic is one of the top issues raised with me and my colleague Brian Parnell, by local people.

Being close to the city centre many of the roads are used as rat runs to get into town and to the station and they can get very busy indeed.

Also the local schools have grown enormously. When I first became a school governor at Freemantle school it was a small infant school. Today it is a primary with 500 children. Similarly St Marks School has expanded considerably and Banister has been completely rebuilt with both schools now all through primaries. This means a lot more cars and children walking, cycling or scooting to school. Speeding traffic and dangerous parking is a big concern from parents that I talk to. 

Brian Parnell and I have surveyed hundreds of residents over the past year and the overwhelming majority favour slowing down the traffic in residential roads. The view is not universal but from the feedback we have had, about 80 per cent are in favour. 

We have been talking about this issue with the council for years and people keeping asking us when will it happen. Introducing 20mph limits is a fairly simple and cheap process. Department of Transport rules changed a few years ago to make the process much easier for councils. All that is required are the signs, the introduction of a legal order - a traffic regulation order, and a formal survey to seek residents' views. We know council budgets are very tight these days but we also know the city council is making a huge amount of money from parking charges and fines, including the new 1st permit charges which hundreds of people in Freemantle Ward now pay. It is quite proper that some of this money is spent on improving the local roads and road safety measures like 20mph limits. 

We have been talking for years about the problem and it is now time for the council to act and with so many more children now at local schools this has to be made a priority.

Labour's Late Night Levy Will Hit Local Pubs In Freemantle

On Wednesday at Full Council, Labour will look to push through a new tax on pubs in the city. This 'Late Night Levy' was initially billed as a measure to ensure that pubs and clubs in the city centre, pay more towards the 'costs' of the city centre night time economy. It is claimed that the funds raised will be spent on policing and street cleaning, but the worry is that the money will simply backfill other budget cuts.

It has since become clear that this new Labour tax will hit all establishments in the city with a late licence, including local pubs and social clubs outside of the city centre. In fact a third of the affected 271 businesses are outside of the city centre. 11 of these premises are in Freemantle Ward, and include:

- the Freemantle
- the Freemantle Arms
- the Freemantle Social Club
- the Osborne
- the Pig and Whistle
- the Rover
- the Blue Keys Hotel
- the Waterloo Arms
- the Wellington Arms

Businesses will be forced to pay up to £4,400 a year, over and above their business rates and all their other costs; yet local pubs in Freemantle and their cusomers will gain nothing from the money that they are forced to hand over. There will be no extra policing in Freemantle, with most officers deployed in the city centre on Friday and Saturday nights and Labour council cuts mean the streets are hardly ever cleaned.

The irony is that Labour have been campaigning to save local pubs. This new Levy will achieve the exact opposite result.

Thank you for your support!

"I am very grateful for the trust local residents have put in me by re-electing me as a councillor for Freemantle Ward.

Thank you if you did vote for me this time, but either way I will work hard to represent you and to do a good job, standing up for the area and local people."

- Jeremy Moulton


The full results for Freemantle Ward are: 

• BARTRAM, Dean - UKIP: 471 
• BLUEMEL, Christopher Francis - The Green Party: 449 
• MARX, Michael - Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts: 36 
• MITCHELL, Harry - Liberal Democrat: 214 
• MOULTON, Jeremy Richard - The Conservative Party Candidate: 1472 Elected 
• USHER, Pat - Labour Party Candidate: 1166 

Results for all wards can be found HERE on the Southampton City Council Website.

• Conservatives gained a seat in Portswood, Millbrook and Swaythling but lost a seat in Shirley.
• Liberal Democrats lost two seats - Portswood and Swaythling
• Labour lost a seat in Millbrook and gained a seat in Shirley.

The over state of the parties on Southampton City Council is now as follows: 

• Labour: 28
• Conservative: 18
• Independent: 2

12 YEARS OF HARD WORK FOR THE FREEMANTLE WARD

Dear Resident

I have been your local councillor for the past 12 years and on 22nd May I am standing for re-election.

I have always worked hard to represent everyone in the area and to get things done and make a difference. For me this is the best part of being a councillor. It’s a job I love and which I put my all into and I hope after May to continue to represent you and the area I grew up in.

We have great community spirit in the area and some really active Resident Associations, Neighbourhood Watches and Community Groups. I have enjoyed supporting them over the years and I am confident that in the years to come we will bring about a lot of positive improvements for the area.

After May I want to see through the improvements to the Civil Service Sports Ground. Let’s finally get it opened up for local residents and schools.

I am also keen to work with residents’ groups in drawing up local neighbourhood plans to protect the area from inappropriate developments and ensure that future developments are in keeping with the area and have proper parking.

Thirdly, I want to help ensure that residential areas are shielded from the impacts of the docks; this means better communication from the port, more trees to screen the docks and improving the local air quality. It also means fighting inappropriate developments like the Biomass Power Station.

I look forward to meeting you during the election campaign and if ever I can be of any help please let me know.

Best wishes,

Cllr Jeremy Moulton

Scrapping City Patrol Would Be a Big Mistake

The City Council is currently consulting on its proposals for next year's council budget changes. Amongst these is the scrapping of the City Patrol service. I would urge a rethink. City Patrol do a huge amount of good work - dealing with matters like fly tipping, illegal car sales, dog fouling and littering. I use the service frequently in dealing with issues in Freemantle Ward.  At the last Full Council meeting I asked how many matters they have dealt with in the last 2 years - the answer was 3,500! Scrapping this service will be a false economy; it will mean a more untidy city, more complaints to the council and a signal to those that behave irresponsibly and in some cases criminally that they can get away with it.

Southampton City Council Refuses to be Biomass Power Station Customer

At yesterday’s full Council meeting the Council debated two issues that relate to the proposed Helius Biomass Power Station.

Firstly the Council approved the Hampshire Waste and Minerals Plan. This is an important planning document which forms part of the Council's planning framework. Back in 2011 the draft plan was amended so that it ruled out very large developments in the Western Docks, such as the Helius Power Station. This change has been retained in the final plan and so this will be a powerful tool in fighting any application from Helius should one be submitted.

Secondly Councillors unanimously supported a motion committing the Council to never becoming a customer of Helius in the future. It has become clear in recent months that Helius would need to be able to sell heat generated by the power station. If it is unable to do this Helius is unlikely to get approval for their scheme. Whilst this does not mean Helius could not find a commercial purchaser of heat, it does rule out a key potential partner. The signal from the council is very clear - that Helius' scheme is not welcome.

Call for Southampton City Council Never to Become a Customer of Helius

On Wednesday Southampton City Council will debate a motion about the proposed Helius Biomass Power Station.

If passed Southampton City Council will commit to never become a customer of Helius Energy to never buy heat and power from the company. It is becoming increasingly clear that any large scale biomass power station in the Western Docks would need to provide combined heat and power (CHP) and be linked in with a buyer of the heat that it generates. 

By making it clear that the council will never become a customer of Helius or another company operating a similar scheme in the docks, the council will put another hurdle in the way of this inappropriate development.

The text of the motion is shown below:

(e)  Councillor Moulton to move

“This Council notes that Helius Energy may need to find significant local demand for the heat energy produced by its proposed biomass power station, if it is to take advantage of potential government funding or subsidies. In light of the Council’s previously stated opposition to the proposed power station, this Council agrees that in so far as is legal it will never become a customer of Helius Energy's heat output or of any companies that might in the future build or operate its scheme or one like it on a similar scale, on the same site or elsewhere in the Western Docks. On the same basis, Council makes it clear that should a large wood burning biomass power station be approved and eventually built in the Western Docks the City Council will at no stage ever directly or indirectly purchase any heat power generated by it.

Council resolves that it will write to Helius Energy to advise them accordingly, with the letter preferably signed by all 4 Group Leaders.”

Civil Service Ground Update

You may be aware that Southampton City Council now owns the former Civil Sports Ground. I would like to take this opportunity of updating you with what has happened and what we intend to do in the near future and in the coming years.

The site has been bought in order to provide more school sports pitches but we are also very keen to look at future opportunities for the land including community use.  To this end, Councillors and Council officers have met with a number of interested parties and this has resulted in the formation of a Working Group.  This group consists of representatives of the Council, St. Mark’s School, Friends of the Field, local residents and some sports organisations and has met throughout the recent months to discuss future opportunities.

Currently we are relocating slow worms which inhabit the site and which are a protected species, meaning that no work on the land can start until they have been removed.  Japanese Knotweed is also growing on the site and has to be treated throughout the year to eradicate it.

We are now looking for contractors to install secure fencing to the field together with some repairs to fencing on the Malmesbury Road side.  It is anticipated that this fencing will be installed in the autumn after the slow worms have been removed and the Japanese Knotweed treated. An estimated timescale is attached to this letter.

Whilst we appreciate that the field has historically been used by the local community, it is currently in such a poor state that it represents a significant health and safety hazard.  A number of local residents are also concerned that the field continues to be accessed illegally and used for anti-social activities by some people. Therefore, we will take steps to ensure that the field will no longer be accessible in the immediate future.  Once the fencing has been installed the land will be secured and only available for school use and some other, occasional, pre-agreed activities by designated users.

In the spring of 2014 the remainder of the field will be dug up, levelled and re-seeded.  Again access will not be possible during this time but once the grass has been established, the field will be re-opened to the local community.  Whilst all of this work takes place the council will continue to engage with local residents to investigate the most appropriate use of the land in the future.

Any additional work would be phased and subject to obtaining external funding. We see this as a developmental programme with exciting possibilities for the local community.  Working together we hope to achieve a high quality local amenity which will encompass the community’s aspirations and provide an attractive outdoor space for the future use of all.

Work	Start date	Finish date
Ground preparation for fencing installation	16 Sept 2013	17 September 2013
Installation of fencing	Oct /November 2013	End December 2013
Site clearance	Early 2014	Spring 2014
Seeding	April/May 2014	September 2014

Labour's Night Time Parking Charges Need A Rethink

Plans by the Labour council to introduce evening parking charges in Southampton city centre need a serious rethink. Charging to park at night will damage businesses, hit city centre workers and also residents.

It will mean more people parking on the outskirts of the city centre in places like Freemantle and Banister Park, to escape the charges. This will mean residents having to compete for parking spaces here when they return home from work. There is also a safety issue for people walking longer distances to their cars late at night.

I recently had a leaflet through my door advertising the new shopping area at Whiteley. They won't be charging for evening parking. It doesn't take a genius to see that Labour charges will drive business elsewhere to places like Whiteley.
It isn't too late to stop this crazy policy. Labour councillors need to re think this.

Sulphur Plant Approved By Council's Planning Committee

The City Council’s Planning and Rights of Way panel this morning considered the application for the Sulphur Plant in the Western Docks.

I am very disappointed to report that the application was approved. Click here for a link to the Daily Echo’s coverage: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10446477.Sulphur_boss_faces_council_over_plans/

I had hoped that the decision could be deferred and further investigation be carried out regarding safety concerns and the environmental impact of the plant. I had asked that independent consultants be engaged to investigate these matters, in light of the fact there have been no other applications of this nature anywhere in the country and that there are no other such plants in the UK. I made those points to the planning committee but sadly the decision was taken to approve the application.

I am now keen to ensure that any other such applications for the docks are properly scrutinised and that local people are informed in the first instance.

The western docks are becoming more and more industrialised and this is a concern for people locally.

In July I will be holding a meeting at the Civic Centre to specifically look at planning issues in the docks, resident communication and how we can do more to shield residents from noise from the docks.

Civil Service Ground Consultation Meeting

There will be a Public Consultation meeting at St Marks School, Stafford Road on 21st May, between 5pm and 7pm.

Local residents and other interested organisations are being invited by the City Council to discuss proposals for the former Civil Service Sports Ground site and to give their views.

If you can come I look forward to seeing you there. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch.

St Marks School Community Forum Dates

The date for the next St Marks School Community Forum will be on Tuesday 26th March, with a Bike It presentation at 6:30pm and Community Forum at 7:00pm.

The one after this will be on Wednesday 3rd July. All meetings will be in the school hall and begin for coffee at 6:30 with a presentation of some sort and the meeting beginning at 7pm.

All are welcome!

Labour Plans To Charge You To Park Outside Your Own Home

Labour have announced plans to introduce new charges for residents who live in permit parking areas in the city. Until now residents with permit parking have not been charged for a permit for their first car. Labour made no mention of their plans for first permit charges in their election manifesto last year and instead they claimed that they would reduce parking charges in the city if elected. Another broken Labour promise!

Parking is a massive problem in Freemantle, made all the worse by all the extra flats that were built without proper parking provision under the last Labour Government. To now charge people who are already struggling to park in their road is outrageous. 

20 Is Plenty In Freemantle

I am calling on the City Council to look at introducing a citywide strategy to reduce speed limits in Southampton.

This comes of the back of new guidelines recently published by the government to make this easier to implement without the need for expensive traffic calming measures in those roads where traffic speeds tend to be slower anyway.

Residents in many residential streets would like to see speeds officially reduced from 30mph to 20mph and this would both reassure local people and reduce accidents.

Local Police Meeting

The next Police and Community Together (PACT) meeting for the Shirley, Freemantle and Regents Park area is on the 10th October at 18.30 at Shirley Parish Hall, Colebrook Avenue, Shirley.

I will be going along and there will be city council officer there to answer questions on parking, traffic and highways matters.

Park Hotel Building To Stay

The Park Hotel Today

For some years the Park Hotel in Shirley Road has been empty and boarded up, with local residents uncertain about the future of the building. Owners, Orchard Homes have been unable to reopen it as a pub and possible options for the site have included pulling it down and building a block of modern flats or a convenience store with flats above. Neither option is popular with local residents, nor is leaving the building empty, as it has become a bit of an eyesore. There was also a fire recently and there are concerns that it may happen again.

Residents and Councillors have met with directors from Orchard Homes on two occasions to see if an agreement could be reached about how the site might be redeveloped. The most popular choice was to see the building retained and converted to residential use and last week Orchard Homes presented some architects plans to the Freemantle Triangle Residents Association. The plans would see the outer walls and roof of the building retained and a second floor added to the single story part of the building fronting onto Shirley Road. 

As a local councillor I often find myself opposing inappropriate planning applications. It is a rare but welcome thing to have a developer making the effort not just to engage with the local community but also to come up with a design that is sympathetic to the neighbourhood and its heritage. 

My grandfather used to drink in the Park Hotel in the 1950s and 60s. It was managed for a while by my former colleague on the Council, Matthew Dean and I have spent many an evening there over the years. including helping clean it out when Matt first moved in. I think it would be a dreadful shame to see it bulldozed and I am very encouraged by the plans put forward by Orchard Homes. 

I found this old advert for the Park Hotel in a Southampton football programme from August 1963. It shows the old organ and the bar. I hope that the building can be saved and I will be supporting Orchard Homes' planning application when it is submitted. 

The Park Hotel 50 years ago (click to enlarge)

           

UPDATE: Orchard Homes have now submitted their planning application which can be seen here.

Tougher Licencing Rules Needed Locally

Residents living in and off of Shirley Road are getting increasingly concerned about the amount of street drinking, the amount of bottles and cans dumped in the street and the numbers of licenced premises (shops and off licences) springing up in the area. I am getting more and more complaints and in recent years I believe that the situation has gotten out of hand. Action is need to curb the number of new licenced premises - enough is enough. 

I have written the Southampton District Police Commander and to the Chairman of the City Council's licencing panel calling for tougher licencing rules to be introduced. A few years ago the Council brought in a new licencing policy (called a Cumulative Impact Policy) in parts of the town centre, Bedford Place and Bevois Valley. This policy shifts the emphasis onto applicants for new alcohol licences, requiring them to demonstrate that they will not add to existing problems in the area. 

I am pleased to say that I have had encouraging feedback from the council's licencing department and the chairman of the licencing panel has agreed to work with the police to see if a tougher policy can be introduced locally. I will keep residents updated with any progress.

New Play Park Needed for Lake Park

The Children's play area in Lake Park is in need of improvements, with play equipment in need of updating and the area surrounding it often waterlogged.

I have received a number of complaints from parents that use the park and I am pushing the council for an urgent upgrade. The City Council has funds available for improving play parks in the area. These funds have been paid over to the council by developers over recent years as part of planning requirements that new developments help support improvements in the area. So the council has the funds and in my view it needs to make Lake Park a priority.

Official Opening of Albany Road Play Park

I was very pleased today to be at the official opening of the new play park in Albany Road in Freemantle.  The new park looks fantastic and is already proving popular with local children. Funds for the play equipment came from developer contributions and the final scheme came in under budget. I am now pushing for improvements to the play facilities in Lakelands Park.

My Written Submission to Helius

I have just made my written submission to Helius. The deadline for responses to Helius about their proposed power station is the 3rd August. All resident comments have to be in before or on 3rd August and need to be sumbitted to enquiries@southamptonbiomasspower.com.

Below is the submission sent by myself and Cllr Parnell:

Dear Sir

We are writing as local councillors for the Freemantle Ward to put on record to you our formal objection to your revised plans for a Power Station proposed for the Western Docks. We have also made representations to the City Council at the Planning and Rights of Way meeting held on 24^th July.

Consultation
We believe that your pre application consultation has been inadequate and flawed from start to finish. Your initial announcement was first made to the media rather than to the City Council and its elected representatives, appearing in the Southern Daily Echo on 6^th March 2012.

You failed to act upon the recommendations of the City Council’s Planning and Rights of Way panel, which in their meeting on 17^th July made several requests. They asked that you extend the area in which you hold consultation meetings to Shirley and Old Redbridge, You failed to do this. You also failed to produce proper information on fire safety should your scheme be built. This is again despite being asked to do this at the Planning and Rights of Way meeting and despite there actually being a huge fire at the time of the meeting at a scrap metal storage site literally next to where you propose building a wood burning power station. The fire was so significant it was visible for miles and nearby neighbourhoods were thick with smoke. The blaze took Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service a day to put out. In light of this and also in light of the fact that there was a fire at a biomass power station recently in Tilbury, to then not provide full information on fire safety is totally unacceptable. This is a significant public concern which you have chosen not to address.

Your consultation has centred on trying to encourage residents to choose between one of three designs. This is clearly an attempt to present your scheme as a fait accompli rather than directing the public debate on to the issue of whether power station on this site is welcome or not. We have attended all of the public meetings held in Southampton and we have had this complaint made to us by residents repeatedly. Indeed Paul Brighton of Helius, at the planning meeting on 24^th July, tried to make the point that one design appeared to date to be the most favoured of the three. This is a serious distortion of the true state of public opinion.

Finally we feel that the photographs of the proposed development that you have supplied do not properly reflect how the development might look if built. You have moved the buildings and site location slightly compared with your previous scheme that you consulted on in 2011. However you have not changed the locations from where you have taken photographs. This is most starkly illustrated by the photograph showing the bottom of Foundry Lane. In last year’s consultation this looked down on the huge boiler house and caused enormous upset amongst local people. You have moved the boiler house now to near the end of Regents Park Road but continue to use a photograph of the bottom of Foundry Lane rather than providing a similar view from the bottom of Regents Park Road. We feel that this is a deliberate attempt not show how large the site would look from this location.

We therefore feel that your consultation has not been open or honest and it appears to us that you have tried to pay lip service to public consultation rather than really try to engage with local people and stakeholders.

Location
The proposed site is directly opposite a residential area. Roads in Freemantle are a mere 250m from the site. Due to the site’s close proximity to housing the proposed power plant will undoubtedly have a serious detrimental impact on the lives of local residents. Anecdotally we have been advised that your plans are already beginning to blight the area with residents struggling to sell their properties or finding that their properties are being significantly devalued.

Cllr Moulton is a governor of the local school, Freemantle Academy. Hence we know first hand from many parents in the area how they are worried about the impact of the power station on their community. The worry is that families will not want to bring up children in an area over shadowed by an enormous power station and will start to move away or not move into the area. This will have a profound knock on effect on the school.

The draft Hampshire Minerals and Waste Plan specifically says that the site you have chosen for your proposed scheme is not suitable for very large developments, namely category 4 and 6 developments. Your scheme therefore directly breaches one of the council’s core planning policy documents. We would like to endorse the objection made by the City Council’s Planning and Rights of Way panel which objected to your scheme at its meeting on 24^th July citing this as a key reason for objecting.

 

Size
The proposed scale of the plant is far too large and out of context with its surrounding structures. Indeed it will be the biggest building on the city skyline, dwarfing the terraced housing opposite. Its sheer size and mass is out of character with the area. It will dominate the view of those coming into the city by road or rail from the west, the residential areas across Southampton water bordering the New Forest and the 1.4m cruise ship passengers travelling up and down Southampton water. The new police building in Southern Road, that opened last year, was meant to be a landmark gateway building. However all people will see when approaching from the west will be the power station.

Some residents have suggested to us that if the power station was much smaller, perhaps more on the scale of the District Energy Scheme in the city centre then proposals for the site would be more acceptable. However, other concerns would need to be addressed. Observations have been made that perhaps the only reason you opted for such a large scale site of 100MW capacity was not because you planned to operate at this capacity, but felt that a more favourable result would entail if you bypassed the local planning process in order to submit to the Planning Inspectorate. Hence it is important that local views are not disenfranchised to effect an unfair advantage to the applicant.

We would like to endorse the objections cited by the City Council’s Planning and Rights of Way panel which objected to your scheme at its meeting on 24^th July citing the size and scale of the proposed development as unacceptable.

Economic Impact
Neighbouring the development is the premier shopping development of West Quay with the new £150m luxury shopping development of Watermark Westquay due to open in 2013. On the waterfront is the proposed £450m development of Royal Pier by Morgan Sindell. The economic revival of Southampton will be placed in jeopardy, as developers will struggle to find tenants to occupy these premier sites with a huge eyesore dominating the surrounding skyline. Southampton is one of the most deprived urban areas in the South East and is fundamental that inward investment is secured to enable job creation in the area. There are thousands of new jobs now in jeopardy.

Design
The proposed designs of the scheme are dreadful. They are functional and lack any architectural merit. They are completely out of keeping with the Victorian terraced houses and docker cottages bordering the site or the nearby attractive 1934 Solent flour mill that greets workers and visitors entering Dock Gate 10 to the port along West Bay Road.

Pollution
A major concern of residents is the adverse impact on air quality. The area already has very low air quality with all the nearby industry and traffic. The power station will further reduce the air quality. The aim should be to improve air quality. The suggestion that it might be within particular standards, if true, does not change the fact that the air quality will be worse and this will have a heath impact on local residents. One only has to walk around the area to see the build up of soot on cars and window ledges. The city centre location is densely packed being home to thousands of people and with the local Freemantle primary school being close by. One can imagine people with asthma and other health problems will be adversely affected. To the North East of the area is Southampton Common, a site of Special Scientific Interest with a fragile habitat with the largest population of the internationally rare great crested newt. You have made reference to the possible need for mitigation measures on the Common in your Technical Document. However I cannot find any details of what these are. Would you please provide further details regarding this?

Noise

The power station will operate 24 hours a day and local residents will be subject to continuous noise pollution. It is not necessarily the operating noise of the facility itself but the conveyors carrying the fuel source onto the site and loading into the burners. There is already considerable noise pollution and over many years we have had complaints from neighbours who are affected by it.

Traffic
If a power station is to be built in the docks, then all the materials should be shipped through the docks and not brought by road. When one considers that a single lorry movement equates to 30 tonnes of load then when the proposal is for 800,000 tonne capacity, then the road impact could be enormous. The Millbrook roundabout and Millbrook Road West are already very congested. The link road into the city is recognised as one of the key roads in the country yet it remains the responsibility of the Council to maintain something that it can ill-afford. The new City Depot has recently been built off Dock Gate 4 this has added further traffic pressure to the area. This route is the main entry point into the city for tens of thousands of daily shoppers to West Quay and IKEA, commuters and visiting football fans. Your plans include no measures to mitigate the impact of traffic on the community. There are no suggestions to have a separate docks road off the M271. Measures like this would help should you bring materials by lorry.

Fuel Source
We have considerable doubts that wood bio mass on this scale is sustainable. The amount of fuel proposed is enormous in comparison to the UK output of wood. Indeed from research we understand that there is no spare capacity to meet the plant’s proposed requirements. Inevitably the vast quantity of wood will be sourced from abroad. Hence the so called green credentials of this technology are dubious to say the least. The impact on carbon emissions of transporting it from around the world will be considerable. A more locally sustainable, smaller, power station using waste wood and local coppicing would surely be more environmentally friendly. What guarantees can you provide that all your wood will come from an accredited source, indefinitely? What steps have you taken to secure viable quantities of fuel?

Heat and CO2
No firm provision has been made to recycle the heat produced from the burning of the fuel. Nor has thought been given to the release of the CO2. Hence these by-products of the combustion are being wasted. Combined heat and power plants are now common place in large glass house nurseries around the UK such as Thanet in Kent and Isle of Wight, where the green credentials of burning fuel are well known and documented with heat used to warm the glasshouses and CO2 provided to the plants.

Community Benefit
Once the construction phase has ceased, which no doubt be undertaken by specialist workers from outside the city there will only be 40 jobs created by operating the plant. Given the specialist nature of your operation it is unlikely that most of the people employed will actually live in Southampton. Hence there will be limited economic benefit to the city outside of the income earned by ABP for leasing the site and cheap power source provided. For such a major multi-million pound development, you have not offered any planning monies to benefit the local community, facilities or infrastructure improvements to the key arterial M271/Millbrook Road route into the city. This is incredibly surprising and demonstrates a complete disregard for your corporate social responsibility.

Whilst this is by no means an exhaustive list of arguments to oppose this application, we do consider that the concerns we have raised are real and warrant that this application be rejected.

Yours faithfully

Jeremy Moulton
Brian Parnell
Councillors for Freemantle Ward