Former Lymington police station now sold to Churchill Retirement Living

LYMINGTON’S former police station has been sold to a major retirement flats developer – dashing hopes of its use for affordable housing.

The office of Hampshire police and crime commissioner Donna Jones confirmed to the A&T it has agreed the Southampton Road site’s purchase by Churchill Retirement Living.

The firm, headed by chair and chief executive Spencer McCarthy, said it had bought the site with the “expectation” its upcoming third planning application would be successful.

As previously reported, the developer made two controversial bids to build 32 retirement flats on the site.

The first was defeated at appeal against New Forest District Council’s refusal, solely over nitrate pollution concerns.

The planning inspector did not uphold original objections, including claims it would add too many homes for older people and hike pressure on local services.

Last December Churchill submitted its second application, including mitigation measures, but pulled it weeks later.

The withdrawal stoked hopes among campaigners, including civic group the Lymington Society, that the site might host affordable homes.

NFDC contacted the PCC’s office, expressing continued interest in purchasing the site for such use.

But in February Mr McCarthy told the A&T a third application was set to be made within weeks as Churchill progressed completion of the site’s purchase.

He explained the withdrawal had been “due to ongoing discussions with the police authority over the land purchase contract” amid “increased economic uncertainty”.

A spokesperson for the PCC’s office said on Wednesday: “We can confirm the site has been sold to Churchill.”

Announcing the sale in an online statement, Mrs Jones said: “My role as the landlord of the police estate is to ensure I secure the highest price for sites which are no longer in use and re-invest the monies raised back into policing and crime reduction initiatives to make communities safer.”

The commissioner again emphasised she had no legal powers to pay for social housing following Lymington & Pennington Town Council’s request for a £1m contribution from sale proceeds.

A Churchill spokesperson said: “We have purchased the site as we expect the resubmission of our planning application to be successful, given that we have resolved the only issue identified by the planning inspector as justification for the appeal dismissal.”

The developer did not confirm when the application would be resubmitted.

Lymington Society chairman Don Mackenzie was among those who campaigned for the site’s use to address a “chronic shortage” of affordable homes.

Expressing the group’s disappointment at the sale, Mr Mackenzie told the A&T affordable provision was badly needed “for the key workers that keep the town running”.

He said: “It seems the huge profits that can be made from these types of developments mean that the developer of these units can always outbid developers of affordable homes, and so the process goes on almost unstoppably.”

Mr Mackenzie believed the flats would mainly attract retired people from across the country rather than free up local family homes.

He called on NFDC to at least insist Churchill makes up to 50% of any proposed development affordable or finances provision elsewhere.

Mr Mackenzie concluded: “Looking forward, it’s clear that a new Local Plan is needed that sets proper controls on the number of retirement flats that are built in a community, and that much more emphasis is on providing a full range of houses for all types of ownership.”

An NFDC spokesperson explained that although 50% affordable provision is usual policy for a development, this was ruled not to be the case for Churchill’s original application.

“The council... is disappointed not to be able to purchase the site,” the spokesperson said.

“Any future planning application will be determined against the policies in the Local Plan, the policy relating to the provision of affordable housing requires 50% of new homes to be affordable housing but confirms that the viability of development will be taken into account in applying this policy.

“The previous application demonstrated that it was not viable to deliver 50% affordable housing which was supported by the inspector at appeal.”

Both of Churchill’s bids for retirement flats proved unpopular among residents, with 53 out of 54 public comments on NFDC’s website for the most recent application being objections.

More than 1,400 people had previously signed a New Forest West Labour Party petition against the proposal.