Latest news:  At its meeting on 3rd April, the Planning and Rights of Way Panel of Southampton City Council refused planning permission for the development in the story below. 

 Original story:

John Denham has called on the City Council to throw out plans to replace two bungalows in Bitterne Park with a block of flats. 

The Labour MP for Southampton Itchen has written to the City Council’s Planning Panel (which meets on 3rd April) to urge it to refuse planning permission for the site at 68 and 70 Sandringham Road.

 The bungalows in Sandringham Road

John Denham says in his letter “I do not normally become involved in individual local planning issues in my constituency.   I only become involved if I believe the proposals have a particular strategic importance. 

“It is for local residents to raise the local impact of the proposed development, such as pressures on the local highway and so on.    My concern is the precedent that will be set by this development for the wholesale redevelopment of an area of Southampton distinguished by its good mix of quality family housing.

“Over recent years too many areas of the city have been undermined as balanced communities by the intrusion of unsuitable blocks of flats.    Far too little of the city’s recent housing stock has been designed to meet the needs of families.  

“Past experience shows that once an area becomes identified as an area in which planning consent for flats will be given, the other properties in the area swiftly become targets for developers.   There is nothing illegal or illegitimate in what these developers are doing but it does undermine confidence in the future of the neighbourhood.

 Family houses in Sandringham Road

This is an area in which such development is relatively rare and I believe that the City Council should act to protect the special quality of this part of Southampton and reject this development.”