Influence on Planning - Trust Annual Report 1975
Winchester owes its historic position to planning by, impulse and necessity, derived froth reactions to natural forces. Not as today, planning for the unnatural forces of advanced technology and an unprecedented increase in population. More can be achieved in ten years now than could have come about in a couple of centuries in Winchester's past.
This is why every nerve has to be strained to achieve the best possible solution and why planning is so vital for our development. If mistakes are made they are likely to be bigger mistakes than ever before.
To illustrate the first point, what could, be more natural than the early settlements on St Catherine's Hill and Oram's Arbor, with the river running between them to form the chief line of communications. Secondary communications developed to east and west.
On this basis the Romans built their settlement in the valley, the underlying plan still plain enough for all to see today.
On our second point the City recently came within a hair’s breadth of accepting a traffic plan which would have destroyed more of the city than it was designed to protect. It is worth remembering that the Romans built their city for pedestrians, and with our clever technology the pedestrians still form the big majority of the population. The need to control the motor car and not destroy the city is at least realised. Essential and useful as the car may be, it is not something for which we destroy our heritage and our environment. We are learning to use it as our servant and not to become its slaves.