Somers Orchard – new homes on Horatia and Leamington Houses site

Find out what people told us below

Thank you to everybody who shared their views with us on what should be done with the site of Horatia House, in Meriden Road, and Leamington House, in Easrlsdon Street, Somerstown after the tower blocks are taken down.

The buildings need to be removed after problems were found with the concrete. Find out more about why they are being taken down and how they will be taken down.

We know that taking down the buildings will affect local people so we wanted to ask as many residents and businesses as possible for their thoughts before we started to put together plans.

You can look at what people told us below.

If you would like to discuss any of this then please call 023 9282 2251 or email strategicdevelopments@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

What is most important to you?

Seven key themes came out of our conversations with the local community about the blocks.

People told us that the issues listed below were the most important to them.

We’re going to use all of the feedback we have collected, and this list, to help us to put together options for the future.

• Build appropriate homes.
• Make better use of green space and space for children.
• No more student accommodation.
• Consider wider area improvements.
• Better parking options.
• No tower blocks.
• Re-provide the social housing lost when the tower blocks go.

How could people tell us what they thought?

• We knocked the door of all 1,100+ people living within 500m of the blocks and the 37 businesses closest to the site. Anybody not available was left with a ‘sorry we missed you’ card, at least once.
• We spoke face-to-face with 82% of the people living within 150m of the blocks.
• We reached out to the 233 latest Horatia and Leamington residents.
• We collected full feedback from more than 655 interested people, businesses, charities, residents associations and community organisations.
• We interviewed partner organisations including: all local schools, police, the fire service, the University of Portsmouth and homelessness support services.
• We contacted 68 harder to engage groups and attended the meetings of those who invited us.
• We held public open drop-in session at Somerstown Central (the hub).
• We published details of the community engagement online, through our own websites and social media accounts.
• We made the consultation available in Arabic, Bengali, Kurdish, Polish and Turkish, and Braille.
• We launched a dedicated telephone hotline, postal address and email address.
• We visited people’s homes and invited people to visit us in the civic offices.