Gosport Society – Autumn Newsletter. Dear Members, Since the previous newsletter and the AGM on 14 June, quite a lot of Society activity has taken place. Events included a successful hog roast at The Fighting Cocks, a buffet lunch at Wakefield House kindly provided by owner Andrew Miles and attended by the mayoress and consort, talks at the Discovery Centre on topics such as “Napoleon’s Lost Soldiers” and “Spitfires of the Sea”, and ongoing participation by committee members in GBC, LRA and other voluntary association meetings. Of particular note – and concern – was the police/army community seminar in the South Hangar at Browndown on the future of public use of this MOD controlled training space. In September, much time was allocated to preparing a detailed response to the GBC planning division as part of the public consultation on the Town Centre and Waterfront Development (SPD) plans. Heritage and conservation matters continue to take up much committee time with the Daedalus and Fort Gilkicker developments stoking controversy. The Society continues to receive genealogical and historical enquiries from places as far afield as Australia. We acknowledge these and do our best to provide as much information as is available via our sources. Suggestions from members for talks and/or research continue to come in and all are welcome. Book sales continue to be healthy and help to keep the Society in the ‘eye’ of the public and the steadily increasing number of visitors and tourists to Gosport. Do keep supporting your Society and try to participate in forthcoming social events. Best Wishes Louis Louis Murray. Chairman – The Gosport Society. • Your Chairman recently spoke at a seminar of the SCA Trafalgar Dental Group held at Explosion Museum. The topic was: “The People of Gosport”. Central to the talk were some selected demographic statistics for the borough. I thought you might be interested in these indicators so they are provided as an appendix to this newsletter. Honorary Treasurer’s Report I completed the Gift Aid Return for subscriptions paid this current year in late summer and reimbursement has now been received from HM Revenue & Customs. We received £241.50 this year. As mentioned previously, if you have not completed a gift aid form for your annual membership subscription and would like to do so, please contact our Membership Secretary or me for further details. I am sure you will agree the income received by the Society is well worth while and our thanks to all those members who are tax payers and have agreed to gift aid their subscriptions. Another regular task for me is to ensure the Charity Commission Website is updated with current Society and Committee information. This is all now fully up to date. Every week produces numerous financial tasks for me, which may be banking income for events, reconciliation of bank accounts or payment of invoices in respect of Society business. I also report monthly to the Committee on the financial status of our bank accounts and movements since the previous meeting. Sue Blower Honorary Treasurer October 2017 Membership Secretary’s Report I have recently become Membership Secretary, which was previously one small part of the duties carried out by Diane Furlong. I am happy to report that the Gosport Society has a steady membership, with three new members in recent weeks. The membership currently stands at 180. If any member has a new email or has changed their email address perhaps they would contact me at [email protected] or telephone 02392 502951. Sue Cook From Brian Mansbridge Daedalus and Solent Airport and Daedalus Waterfront. Wates who will be building two hundred new homes in Daedalus next year held an exhibition in Lee-on-the-Solent recently for the public to view their outline plans. This will be Phase 2 of the planned development of Daedalus Waterfront, Phase 1 is Daedalus Business Park which is already half completed. Phase 2 work, the house building, is expected to start in May 2018 (providing the planning process remains on track) with first occupation early in 2019 and the whole project finished by May 2020. This development is important to the reintegration of Lee-on-the-Solent by in-filling a big part of west Lee that was requisitioned out of the developing town to meet the military requirements of two World Wars. This left a muddled mix of administration buildings mostly unused and barely maintained since the closure of HMS Daedalus in 1996. The houses are to be arranged in two plots of 100, outlined in red in the foreground of the Daedalus aerial view below, the West housing plot and the thinner red outlined strip toward the existing town is Daedalus East. The middle is ‘phase three’ development due later and probably another business park. The housing developer predicts that their development will bring life back into the historic site using a building style and materials that will complement the remaining on-site ‘heritage buildings,’ (although these heritage assets will be subject to separate development). It was evident that there was an architectural effort to blend from the style of the adjoining housing in Lee-on-the-Solent with a transition to the more modern type units and flats that facilitate the requirement to include 40% affordable or starter homes. Local residents attending the consultation were obviously keen to see how this is to be achieved and what their new neighbourhood might look like…. It seemed most were content to see the fairly open nature of the development although clearly not all held the same opinion about the architecture. Your GS/Lee Residents’ representative has already been talking with both the Council and the developers and we understand that our requests, along with those of local Councillors, has led to amendments that for example ensure that the regulation parking requirements are fully met. Some access queries have yet to be resolved. Solent Airport Daedalus. The plans for an air traffic tower and radar on the airfield were first revealed by Fareham BC in 2016 following their purchase of the airfield in 2015. It is understood that the position of this and the proposed MCA (Coastguard) satellite receiver system seem to be dancing around the airfield to different sites. It is quite possible this is due to potential mutual interference arising from the electromagnetic emissions (EMF) from the electricity interconnector (IFA2 and its cable to run across the airfield) as all these developments are either emitters of, or very sensitive to EMF. Recent trials have been held on high power cables of the type to be used underground across the airfield, to assess the effects, primarily on aircraft. The trial seems to indicate the screening will significantly reduce the effects but it is difficult to extrapolate the results from small-scale trials to the final installations. With two powerful EMF emitters and one sensitive receiver on the same airfield I suspect even the experts are scratching heads a bit over the possible interactions. Gosport BC at their recent Regulatory Board have voted to restate their objection to IFA2 seeking that FBC provide assurance, rather than be satisfied, that any EMF from IFA2 would not prejudice Solent Airfield safety, the Economic Zone development, any personnel or the wellbeing of nearby residents. Finally a word about those intriguing plans that have been ‘leaked’ to the press and featured Lee-on-the-Solent in some way. The speculation of a Hovercraft service between Southampton and Portsmouth and scheduled flights between Solent Airport and Alderney in the Channel Islands…. Both these stories are “leaks” about ideas that are under consideration and by no means certain. The Hovercraft service is exploring an idea of providing an alternative for the Portsmouth to Southampton commute. At this stage Hovertravel is just preparing a business case for the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership who may be able to secure government funding to support a trial service. It is true that the islanders of Alderney would like a more reliable connection to the mainland and Solent Airport Daedalus is just about the closest for a direct island-mainland air-link, but it’s early in an exploratory idea at present. Wakefield House Blue Plaque by Philippa Dickinson The Gosport Society has had to make a decision to arrange for the removal of the commemorative Blue Plaque to Lord Wakefield, which was installed on the wall of 2. Wakefield House in July. The generous donation of the house and grounds by noted entrepreneur and philanthropist, Lord Wakefield, to the National Children’s Home and Orphanage is not in doubt. However, no verifiable evidence could be found that Lord Wakefield ever lived in the house, which meant that the words ‘Lived Here’ should not have been included on the plaque. After a thorough investigation in to the documentation behind the original nomination, it transpired that an assumption about the ownership of the house between 1929 and 1931 had been made in a secondary source. This was, unfortunately, accepted as ‘fact’ and carried through to the text on the plaque. Discussions are ongoing about possibilities for finding alternative ways to recognise the historical connection between Gosport (Alverstoke) and the National Children’s Home and Orphanage, which could include Lord Wakefield’s long-standing involvement with the charity – and the donation of the house and grounds. The Gosport Society will be reviewing the criteria and processes for its Blue Plaque scheme in due course. A Record Year for Gosport Heritage Open Days by Philippa Dickinson Gosport’s Heritage Open Days 2017 (7-10 September) recorded 15,000 visitors to almost 90 separate free events.