The Draft Town Centre Plan - Trust Annual Report 1980
Following publication by the City Council of their Report on the Second Stage of Public Participation, the Trust submitted further comments in response to new or erroneous elements in the latest document.
On a technical point the Trust objected to its appearance in the analysis of comments as only one voice, comparable with that of a single individual. While we believe that it is the quality of argument rather than numerical weight which matters in this context, we also believe that the membership as a whole has relied upon the elected committee to express a consensus opinion.
The working party also found the official philosophy still lacking in perception concerning the issues at stake, and argued that it is particularly important to face the question of the limitation to growth in the Town Centre in order to prevent the outdated predictions of growth in the Winchester Area Plan from influencing the final document.
Whilst applauding the trend in official thinking which resulted in a reduction from four to three lanes in the proposals for North Walls, the Trust objected to any widening, giving detailed reasons for believing that the admitted gain to St. Georges Street would be heavily offset by permanent environmental damage to North Walls and other areas affected by the proposals.
The Trust fully supported the proposal to re-route traffic across the Central Car Park and along Upper Brook Street, seeing five important additional gains not brought out in the Report, including major relief in pedestrian crossing and delivery problems in St. Georges Street. It was also felt that the division of the proposed shopping development area was a welcome step in reducing the scale of the operation, since we remain deeply concerned at the very large scale envisaged by the Officers.
Many other detailed points were made and although they were inevitably critical, it was stressed that they were made in the light of our admiration for the Council's handling of the matter and the painstaking work of the Officers concerned.