The draft Newport Harbour Masterplan (to be considered by the Isle of Wight Council's Cabinet on 6th August) contains a proposal - put forward by officers and external consultants - to build housing on part of Seaclose Park and all of Fairlee Service Station.

These plans must be opposed for following reasons:

1. Seaclose is by far the most important and widely used park on the Island. The entire area must be preserved for sports, recreation and ancillary uses (including the Isle of Wight Festival). It is known internationally as the home of the Isle of Wight Festival
2. Fairlee Service Station is a long-standing, successful business with no current plans to close or relocate. At this challenging time we should be looking to support local businesses; not looking to evict them from their premises.
3. This area cannot reasonably be considered to be part of Newport Harbour. The land for this proposed development fronts onto Fairlee Road and represents (in the case of the Seaclose Park land) an important “green gap” within the street-scene of residential properties. Building houses on this land will not make any meaningful contribution to our shared aspirations to transform Newport Harbour.

There are enough undeveloped brownfield sites in and around Newport to deliver houses whilst not degrading our beloved green spaces.

We must ensure that Seaclose Park – in its entirety – is preserved exclusively for sports, recreation, leisure and general public amenity uses.

Please sign this petition to show the strength of feeling locally.
(N.B. It is not currently practical (due to the need to minimise the spread of coronavirus) to organise a petition under the IW Council's Petitions Scheme, as this requires paper petitions to be signed. Therefore this petition is being organised online, i.e. like council meetings which are currently taking place online. The petition will be presented to the Cabinet ahead of its meeting on 6th August.)