Summary Record of the Winchester City Internal Road Plans - Trust Annual Report 1968
A comprehensive local traffic plan was approved in principle at City Council (subsequently referred to as the Council) meeting 24th June, 1964. A consequent report dated April 1965 was considered at Council meeting 28th July, 1965 at which the Town Clerk referred to Ministry of Transport Circular 8/65 inviting local authorities to submit by 30th September, 1965 'with outline particulars of road improvement schemes which they would wish for inclusion in a list of schemes for inclusion in the Ministry's programme for 1970 onwards'. This meant, in effect, 'no plan, no chance of financial support from central government funds', so that it was expedient to queue up with a plan now while the going was good.
The resultant plan which involved, in various stages, complicated road adjustments and considerable destruction of notable residential property, particularly in the St. James' Terrace, Christchurch Road, and St. Cross Front Street areas with special relation to an inner link to make Southgate Street one-way traffic, aroused profound disquiet among residents thereby threatened as well as from advocates of the preservation of Winchester's architectural assets, and their views were conveyed to the Council through various local residents' associations and other organisations, and vocally in the press correspondence columns. In response the Council expressed their readiness in principle to consider alternative detailed proposals.
Public dissent was re-affirmed at a public meeting convened by the Council at Guildhall on 28th July, 1964 at which (see Hampshire Chronicle report 1st August, 1964): 'Well over 600 people packed the Guildhall to let the Council members know their feelings on the matter and left little doubt that certain points in the plan were extremely unpopular'. Among the organisations which presented their objections to the plan in its current form were the Winchester Preservation Trust in a calm and objective statement by its Chairman, Mr. D. Pare. A proposal from the floor that a vote should be taken on the plan was rejected by the Chair, after consultation with the Town Clerk, on the grounds that this would be out of order as not being representative of the Winchester community.
This inconclusive meeting between Council and residents sot unnaturally did not relieve public concern, particularly in sum of the danger of planning blight in the threatened areas. Various local residents' associations made representations to their ward councillors, and discussions were held with the Council by interested organisations, but with little apparent success.
A revised, though basically unchanged, plan for an inner ring road was accepted by the Council as a basis for more detailed planning, at a meeting on 28th July, 1965, for submission to the Ministry of Transport.
At a meeting on 30th June, 1966 the Council discussed a Winchester Town Centre Map, but detailed study was deferred until October session.
In the meanwhile a Public Meeting at Guildhall was convened for the evening of 26th July, 1966 for discussion of the above Winchester Town Centre Map at which, it was announced, Officers of the Hampshire County Council and the Winchester City Council were to be present 'to explain the proposals with the aid of large scale plans and to answer any questions'. The announcement of the meeting added that a period of three months would be allowed to enable any individual or group of persons to make objections, representations and suggestions, which were to be made in writing to the Clerk of the County Council by 28th October, 1966. Copies of a booklet describing the proposals could be obtained at a price of 10s. from the offices of the County Planning Department or the Town Clerk.
The official planners' explanations and traffic statistics, particularly relating to the volume of purely internal movements, failed to convince the great majority of the citizens present, the consensus of whose opinion was at least to abandon, or defer commitment to, any internal link scheme until it could be established to what extent the completion of the King's Worthy Link, the commencement of which in the near future was now assured, relieved the pressure of traffic within the city, as it logically ought to do. The Mayor as Chairman accepted several petitions against the St. James' Terrace/Christchurch Road/St. Cross Road inner link scheme signed by a representative number of residents, but no vote or resolution by the audience was recorded (no opportunity for such an expression of opinion having been accorded).
It appeared, however, from the proceedings of the Council meeting on October 1966, approving a recommendation of the Highways Committee of 26th September, 1966 for the abandonment of the St. Cross/Sussex Street Inner Link plans, that economic consideration and perhaps also the pressure of public opinion had effected at least the shelving of the most controversial items of the road plan.
Nevertheless in response to further offers from the Count Council to underwrite a greater proportion of the costs involved, the City Council at the meeting of 7th December, 1966 reverted to the original intention with a resolution that the plan should be proceeded with in its entirety.
It was reported in the Hampshire Chronicle of 13th Jun 1967 that 'Winchester traffic schemes to cost nearly two million pounds are included in the "Preparation List" of urban road schemes announced by the Minister of Transport (Mrs. Barbara Castle) on Wednesday 10th June. It covers the ten-year action plan already prepared by the City Council and the Minister's intention is that the work should start within a period of 5 to 8 years from 1971'. The items, listed with their estimated costs include the North Walls widening (£320,000) and the St. Cross to Romsey Road via St. James' Lane (£270,000). This then is the up-to-date situation, with work on the Kingsworthy/Winchester By-Pass link begun and proceeding steadily.