THE CITY OF WINCHESTER TRUST LIMITED
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED
31 MARCH 2002
Chairman's Report
I have now been Chairman of the Trust for eleven months. It has been something which I have greatly enjoyed doing and will continue to enjoy. I am still learning about the job and about the planning process and the valuable role that the Trust plays in the life of Winchester. I cannot believe that the first AGM which I shall chair is only one month away. In that time I have attended the Civic Trust in London twice to take part in the creation of a regional grouping of local amenity societies covering the South East, visited Canterbury for a seminar given by the English Historic Towns Forum, met the leader of the County Council on two occasions, met various councillors for the city parishes, spoken to a number of members about their concerns for the Trust, attended many planning meetings and other local authority meetings concerning the development agenda for the City and the wider Winchester District. This is not exhaustive but it does give an idea of what is involved. I have learned a great deal and shall go on learning until I eventually retire from the chair. The only item in my life that has suffered is my golf and that was a basket case anyway.
Membership
We now have an excellent system for information retrieval relating to our membership. I am very grateful to Rolly Thomas our Secretary, Ian Grant our Treasurer and to Dick Selwood who has been invaluable with his advice and practical guidance on creating a database. What is now available is a sound foundation upon which to build our membership. Our income from membership has increased thanks to a combination of higher membership fees and Gift Aid.
I am hoping to create a scheme whereby the Trust can target those who have recently moved to Winchester, and those who already live here but are not members. We should be able to send them a copy of our Vision statement together with a copy of our excellent written advice on how to Keep Your House in Good Order.
We can always do with more members and I would like to ask existing members to become recruiting sergeants, but not members of the press gang, to see if they can persuade friends and neighbours to join us. Similarly I would like to increase our corporate membership. We are going to produce a membership certificate to give to new and existing corporate members which can then be proudly displayed. We need to keep up our income levels and, more importantly, widen our sphere of influence.
Trust Activities
Apart from monitoring planning applications made within the City boundaries, the Trust also involves itself in as many other activities as it can. As an illustration we have been involved with the preparation of the latest Conservation document relating to the City, with the siting and design of the Millennium statue in the courtyard to the Law Courts, with the preparation of the Culture consultative document for the City and with the annual conference of the English Historic Towns Forum which is taking place in Winchester in late September. Again this is not exhaustive, but it does provide a sample of what we are doing.
There are two activities which we want to maintain. They are the Chippindale Venture which works with schools and architects to give children an introduction to design and planning, and the Awards Scheme where we make awards for good design within the City.
Controversies and Anxieties
The three largest controversies likely to face us all in the near future are the redevelopment at Friarsgate and possibly Barton Farm and the implementation of PPG3, which is a document put out by central government in March 2000 requiring local planners to increase housing density on so as to reduce the need to build on Greenfield sites.
Friarsgate awaits the policy document from the local authority planners setting out what they would like to see built there. As I told you in the latest TrustNews we were approached by Thornfield Properties who are the preferred developers for Stagecoach. Their Development Manager for the project, Mike Capocci FRICS, is to address us at our AGM about "The Trials and Tribulations of a Developer in Winchester”. We have enjoyed meeting him and sharing our thoughts with him.
Barton Farm development is a large cloud in the distance which we must watch. We cannot afford to be complacent about its presence but for the moment there is a more urgent need to consider the impact of PPG3. The Trust is preparing a document which shows how we believe that this government policy should be implemented in Winchester.
There is increasing alarm at its present implementation which is shared by those who live in the District as a whole. l have met Mark Oaten MP with members of local resident associations from Southdown, Sleepers Hill, Compton Down Society, and the Salters Acre Association at which we expressed our joint concerns as to what effect it was having. Mark Oaten was instrumental in securing a debate on the subject in the House of Commons in late July. l have read Hansard's report of the debate. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (to give him his full title) Tony McNulty made some remarks which are potentially helpful.
The debate was helpful because it brought support from members for other constituencies who have heard from their local constituents about similar concerns to-our own. However what is needed we believe is more time and skill in implementing PPG3 at the grass roots. The local officers who administer planning legislation are under enonnous pressure to turn round applications within eight weeks; the applications are increasing each year and the personnel to achieve it does not increase sufficiently. Building at higher densities than we did in the 20th Century involves much greater complexity than ever before. The design of the urban framework cannot just be left to developers, but is a critical responsibility of the City Council. Thus we believe that there should be adequate input from the planning system to achieve the standards we need in an historic city.
The Trust has written to the City Council pointing out the fact that more officers are needed to carry out the work required by the needs of planning legislation. The difficulty is compounded by officers leaving, and by the haste demanded of them so as to avoid criticism from government. Members need to contact their local councillors to ensure that PPG3 is applied more successfully.
Gratitude
I would like to thank all members of the Council for helping me in my first year of office. They have given me much needed support. It would be invidious to select anybody for special mention because everybody has been splendid but l would like to pick out Michael Carden whose wisdom and guidance drawn from his unrivalled knowledge about the Trust and its history have been of great value to me.
On behalf of the Council
signed Roger Backhouse
Chairman
September 2002