Just when you thought construction work in the Wellington Retail Park was all over with Sainsbury’s opening late last year, you may be surprised (or not!) to find that more construction work is now under way.
If you’ve been up to Waterlooville in the past week you’ll have noticed some of the car park has been cordoned off. There are areas where the car park is being dug up and there is a large area by the new walkway that just this morning (Monday 12 January) had 2 white shipping containers delivered as makeshift portable offices.
The fact is that three more retail units (‘pods’) are to be constructed. There is no information yet as to what the new shops will be, but it’s reasonable to assume that there will possibly be a cafe/restaurant/fast food establishment of some description – or perhaps three? There is provision for a paved area out the front and public seating will also be provided; an ideal place for tables and chairs perhaps?
The car park will lose 25 car parking spaces overall, reducing from 562 to 537 spaces. There are a few new spaces outside Home Bargains being created to counteract some of the loss. There will be a circulation pattern change for cars and the planning application hopes the changes will be more pedestrian friendly. The entrance to the car park from the Maurepaus Way roundabout also appears to be in the middle of being widened.
Cyclists will also get 14 new cycle parking spaces with the construction of a covered bicycle unit in the form of ‘Sheffield’ stands near the new ramp.
What do you think will be in the new retail units? Will this make Wellington Retail Park a destination in it’s own right? Will you need to go into the town centre at all?
charity shops??
I think it’s exciting. Since sainsbury’s opened traffic has been less congested and I welcome some more new shops.
That carpark needs motorcycle spaces, too often I park in a normal car space and get dirty looks from car drivers… i pay road tax too!
As long as it’s not charity shop I’m all for it ! Need it with all the new houses being built
could do with another exit as it gets manic in there, especially when people have no manners as to right of way etc!
Food bank collection centres?
Abbi Collins
More shops no one wants I bet a fast food eye sore and a other rubbish
I’ve heard one is gonna be a costa!
Vicky Evans making it even worse!! Traffic is horrendous! We need more ways out!!
David
Ice cream parlour?…… as the one planned for Cowplain seems to have been scrapped? X
Kevin O’Neill
Kyle Johnson
Rosemarie Harding
Rozelle this is what we saw last week!
Junee Grace
McDonalds x
I’ll tell what Waterlooville needs. More charity shops and retirement flats. :/
Kerry Tasha
Why build more shops and take away passing trade from main shopping centre when there is plenty of empty shops in waterlooville precinct.
All well and good, and hopefully create lots of jobs. But let’s not forget about all the empty shops in the main area. Unless there is something else Havant council have planned for it.
who would want to have a coffee in a car park??
Costa in Waterlooville is pretty new and successful so I reckon a Starbucks like in Whiteley. I also think the roads round there have flowed much better and pretty freely since sainsbury’s opened which is a bonus xx
Stop moaning!!
According to HBC Costa Coffee, Subway amd Carphone Warehouse
Mason and Stanly aha
We have these in the precinct. Why not Next or Debenhams?
This is crazy with so many shops empty in the precinct, building more shops down there will take even more business away from the heart of Waterlooville. Bad news
Its getting bigger and better there!!!
A Costa and Subway in Waterlooville already and I think a Carphone Warehouse …. Or are they going to close and make Waterlooville more of a ghost town !!
Starbucks!!! What’s the point of Costa subway and carphone warehouse they have all 3 in town! Something diff would be good!
Steve Mayne – do you know any news on the proposed development on the old BAE / Marconi site ? not heard much about it recently
How about a primark ??????
The question I would like to ask is , what’s happend to the. New bowling alley , cinema, restraunt, pub ect over the other side it seems to have disappeared
Waterloo ville – soon to be upgraded to Waterloo Town or maybe even Waterloo City….
why is this the 1st I have heard about this? Never even seen anything in The News! At the least these cafes etc will have customers in the staff of all the shops there – matalan etc
More shops when Waterlooville has so many empty shops!!
Well we have needed a coffee shop in that area for ages … Now we have M&S and Sainsbury’s and now the are putting more in !!!!!
I work In the cafe in m and s so we don’t need a cafe to go up against. Okay we have our loyal m and s shoppers but who wants a greasy rough burger cafe? The guy who does burgers in between tk maxx and sainsbury does brilliant so I’m sure he doesn’t want that either
It’s amazing, all this building going on around Waterlooville, and it’s one of the only towns I know that does not have a train station.
Instead of more shops and cafes when there are enough empty premises in the precinct. How about putting back the “temporary” ramp that sainsburys buliders put in so that mothers do not have to push their children thro the carpark to get to the shops and so that people and cyclist do not have to run the guantlet thro that awful central path that the majority of car drivers ignore. The amount of near misses i see on a daily basis is astonishing.
How about you fix that ‘wonderul’ new ramp that was put in to replace the subway version, that surley could of been altered. The new ramp floods as there is no drainage and the loose gravel makes it slippery.
How about you fix the new crossing so that people have more time than 4 seconds to cross it, yes 4 seconds!! Ive timed it and whilst your there make it beep too.
Hi Claire,
Just feel I need to point out, we are just people who live in Waterlooville, we didn’t design any of this.
It’s worth taking up with Havant Borough Council as they are the organisation that has the responsibility to influence the change of all of these items.
I’m assuming that if a retail food unit is going in, the council will be putting bins in?? Something that the area greatly lacks…
We certainly do need more exits for the vehicles. Has anyone in planning thought about this. Bet not.
I really don’t know why anyone would think we need 3 more businesses in the car park, for goodness sake. What’s the matter with the shopping precinct, how about opening up some of the empty shops as there’s enough of them. If i was to go to a coffee shop i would rather it was in the precinct than in a car park.
It is good business sense for Costa, Subway and Carphone Warehouse to move in to a unit where there is free parking for their customers. Does anyone think that Waterlooville can support two Subways, two Costas, and two Carphone Warehouses? We ALL know what happened when McDonald’s opened a second nearby branch.
why let existing shops have extra selling space in a second area of the village,just because of free parking i think what would make more sense and get more trade in the town center would be to the council to take back the franchises from the car park charging companys and return to free parking for customers who spend cash in the town shops.Ive just had a thought maybe the council is hoping that within a few years,if not sooner they will be able to move waterlooville to the bottom of the hill, Then convert the precinct jnto a new park…… what do you think?????
What is happening to Waterlooville??? It is beyond a joke what is happening to the town. So many houses being built, for whom? There isn’t the work around, they build homes but no infrastructure, roads already congested, Q,A hospital that can’t cope now! no new health centres, no new schools, just homes built on every available piece of land. There is no green space left on the sites being built on, as builders are only after £££’s so cram as many homes onto the land as possible. The housing site off of the Hambledon Road is a joke. You have to go down here to get to the Recycling site, but it is littered with cars who have nowhere else to park as new houses seem to be exempt from garages. Waterlooville is being RUINED, there is only so many new homes a town can take!!!!