City planners will again be discussing the hours a St Denys waterside walkway is opened for public use at a meeting on September 21, with officers recommending the rejection of an application to reduce public hours.
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The walkway runs between the public hard and Horseshoe Bridge in St Denys, alongside the Quay 2000 residential development.
As previously reported, an application from Quay 2000 RTM Company Ltd is seeking to vary a previous decision, taken in July 2019, which was to keep the gates open from 7am until 9pm from April 2 to September 29, and from 7am to 6pm from September 30 until April 1.
“Unfortunately,” says the officer’s report to the planning panel on the current application, “due to both issues of health and safety, which required both repairs to be carried out to the Walkway, and the Covid 19 Pandemic this matter has been deferred for a significant timeframe.”
It’s now being proposed that it is opened for public use from 8am – 8pm from April 1 to October 31, and from 8am – 4pm from November 1 to March 31.
Waterside walkway by Quay 2000 in St Denys
Summarising points made in favour and against reducing public opening hours, the report notes that those in support, “generally residents of Quay 2000, were concerned that the anti-social behaviour experienced previously would return due to the later opening hours set by the original Planning Decision”.
However it continues: “The contrary view is that the revised hours are too restrictive, especially the original hours proposed by the applicant and do not provide a reasonable level of waterfront access for all.”
The link to observe the public meeting online, which takes place from 4pm on Tuesday 21st, is at
No doubt some Bitterne Parkers will also be interested in the outcome, not least because gates to a similar riverside walk by the McCarthy Stone retirement development to the east of Cobden Bridge, and at the other end into the Riverdene development from Whitworth Crescent, remain locked. There’s more about this in our piece from July 2019, ‘Could waterfront walkway be close to opening?’. (The answer was no.)
Locked gate at entrance to river walk off Cobden Bridge, taken 13/9/21
Locked gate off Whitworth Crescent, taken 13/9/21