Wildlife charities' green roofs proposal for planned Portsmouth housing site

Nature charities have put forward plans to safeguard wildlife at a proposed housing development site.

The Lennox Point development, for thousands of homes at Tipner West in Portsmouth, was paused last year after criticism by conservationists.

The final plans are expected to be submitted by the end of the year.

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and the RSPB have suggested several mitigation measures, including "green" roofs and walls.

The two charities previously warned the initial plans would destroy feeding and roosting grounds for wintering waterfowl.

They have also suggested bird, bat and bee boxes could be created at the site, and "native, wildlife-friendly planting" could be used.

The initial proposals were for a "super peninsula" of up to 4,000 homes as part of a £1bn futuristic development.

But the plans proved to be controversial, with 24,000 people signing a petition against them.

Portsmouth City Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said a return to more scaled-back plans for the existing land, which would provide about 1,250 homes, had proved more palatable.

The authority is planning to have the final proposals for the site ready by the end of the year but councillors said little progress had been made in recent weeks, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Mr Vernon-Jackson said: "We have to make sure we do everything properly because only then can we go to the government and say we can't build the 17,700 homes the government has set us as a target."

RSPB's head of policy and advocacy, Alice Hardiman, said she recognised the need to build affordable homes in the city but said "nature needs homes" as well.

"The council must abandon plans to destroy the internationally important wildlife area and concentrate on a vision for the undesignated land instead," she said.

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