00:00So this is Fort Brockhurst, one of the Palmerston forts on the Gosport lines.
00:04It was originally built in the 1850s and 60s to defend against the French from a land assault.
00:10Now it's a community asset for everybody to enjoy in the Gosport area, with various events taking place over the years.
00:17Not all sites like this have been so lucky.
00:20Some, like Fort Blockhouse and Fort Elson, have been left to water and are currently degrading.
00:25The problem is a lot of these forts are owned on Ministry of Defence land, and as a result, developers have to go through several hoops to be able to create new designs for them.
00:36And because of this, many of these sites are turning into an eyesore and are not used as community assets such as this one.
00:43It is hoped that Fort Brockhurst can be a major example of what can be done when everything lines up.
00:48Freddie Webb, Ports of News, Gosport.
00:50So, David, we're just having the conference which analyzes the state of Gosport heritage, particularly the forts.
00:58What are your thoughts on the general state of heritage for these Gosport forts?
01:03Because some of them are being repurposed into museums like this one, but others are being left in toilet.
01:08It's a mixed picture.
01:10I agree.
01:10There's some very good examples and there's some more challenging examples.
01:15But compared to the 1960s and 70s, we're in a much better place.
01:19In that era, the Stokes Bay lines were filled in and Fort Gomer was demolished.
01:24And nobody's talking about that sort of thing these days.
01:28There's some great examples of heritage being looked after.
01:34We're here today at Fort Brockhurst, which is in the care of English heritage.
01:38And this site is fantastic.
01:42We see investment going on, for example, at the Diving Museum and Stokes Bay, where they're finding a new use for a fortification by redeveloping it for the Diving Museum.
01:57We see Gill Kicker, for example, being redeveloped.
02:00And that's giving that a new life.
02:02Many of the other sites are in the hands of the Ministry of Defence, and they are as good a custodian as they're able to be because it's not their core remit to be looking after heritage.
02:19So I think the opportunity there is to work with the Ministry of Defence to find ways that they can sustain their sites and where they're looking to relinquish those sites, find a good and valuable new use for them.
02:38There are serious concerns, obviously.
02:40For example, the submarine training escape tower, which the Haberture Building Preservation Trust proposed to take on and develop and restore the tower.
02:53But we never get to talk to the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.
02:58It's pretty well impossible to talk to them.
03:00We were talking to consultants, right?
03:02We never had a response on our bid.
03:05And that's probably quite typical.
03:07If the Defence Infrastructure Organisation is serious about disposing of their surplus sites, they need to enter into a dialogue with local people, local planners, developers, and conservationists, the people who know the most about the history of those sites.
03:26As it happens, Gosport has a wonderful conservation officer, right?
03:30It was Rob Harper, now it's Richard Whittingham.
03:33They are extremely good and the result of their expertise is that, for example, Royal Clarence Yard and the others like Fort Blockhouse and the Nasdaq Hospital, enough was known to make sure that they kept all the things that really mattered when the developers took them on.
03:56I think it's a really mixed picture.
03:58I think there are some real positive glimmers of light.
04:00And my very strong view is that Gosport's heritage and our history is our superpower.
04:08You know, this is one of the first places in the whole country to start the Heritage Open Days.
04:11We've got a lot of local people who are really passionate and proud of our history, particularly our military history.
04:16But we need to be maximising its potential.
04:18And that's patchy at the moment.
04:19We've seen some remarkable organisations breathing new life into some of our historic buildings like Fort Gilkicker and Hornet Sailing Club, where they've brought back the former police station site.
04:31You know, real huge investment and a lot of passion and enthusiasm going into these sites.
04:38But there's a lot more to do.
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