THE CITY OF WINCHESTER TRUST LIMITED
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED
31 MARCH 2003
Policy Group
The Government's revision of Planning Policy Guidance Note 3: Housing, known to us all as PPG3, has been our main concern for the year. To this end we convened a PPG3 Working Party, consisting of Ray Attfield, Michael Carden and Antony Proudman. Early on, it was discovered that the Government had published a helpful companion guide to PPG3 called Better Places to Live: by Design. So the first task was to analyse both documents carefully and then to decide how they should inform the Trust’s policy for Winchester. An early draft policy paper was produced by August 2002. However, based on the experience of actual planning applications, and the City Council’s responses to them, it became clear to us that PPG3 was not being applied as the Government intended. As a result of the changing situation, and our increasing understanding of it, the emerging policy underwent continuous revision and then had to be largely rewritten. lt was finally published in July 2003.
As the situation unfolded, the working party felt that it could not wait for the Trust’s policy to be finished and asked for a meeting with Steven Bee, then Director of Development Services, to express its concem. Then it met Winchester’s MP, Mark Oaten, to explain to him what we felt was going wrong. Ultimately, we submitted a Plea on behalf of the Trust to the City Council’s Principal Scrutiny on 5th March 2002, requesting action. We can now report that the City is reviewing its policy.
Antony Proudman
Chairman, Policy Group