We need visionary thinking to make the most of Portsmouth
The Pyramids saga rolls on without a practicable and viable solution that the community can feel proud of.
The Bransbury Park solution is a less than satisfactory site with inconvenient parking facilities and it leaves the spectacular Pyramids site with a less than spectacular children’s soft play centre.
This is a half-baked, desperate solution to a site which has strategic site potential.
Portsmouth is now being recognised as a five-star destination with the proposed new hotel at the Royal Marines site.
The Pyramids site could be redeveloped to reinforce Portsmouth’s international reputation with an elite sports hotel centre with swimming facilities both for elite athletes and a local fun pool.
The Pyramids building is a dated, unsustainable facility which cannot be revived by ‘management’ solutions.
It needs a new state-of-the-art, environmentally sustainable hotel complex with a community facility attached to make it economically viable.
There would be a lack of outdoor sports training facilities at the site but maybe those could be provided by converting the extensive, under-used land at Fort Cumberland and also linking this to the
Royal Marines hotel site?
It is already a science research centre so why not make it into a tourist attraction using the buildings of the fort for displays of the latest archaeological research which is being carrying out?
This is the kind of visionary thinking Portsmouth needs to boost its credibility as an international destination and ‘city of culture’.
Jerry Bamforth Sennen Place, Port Solent