Traffic - Trust Annual Report 1990
Early this year Winchester City and Hampshire County Councils jointly undertook a "Movement and Access Study" for Winchester. The terms of reference are to consider the problems caused by traffic in Winchester and to put forward a package of management measures designed to improve the quality of life in the City (especially the central area) by improving conditions on key routes, improving the environment in sensitive areas and giving priority to movements which will help sustain economic activity in Winchester. A study of Park and Ride is to be included.
The Movement and Access Study is very welcome to the Trust which has been lobbying for just such a study for years. In particular we have urged that a serious study of Park and Ride should be made and felt sufficiently strongly on this subject to offer to make a financial contribution towards it. It has been made clear that the Trust's interest is welcome and Dr. G. Gillham and Harvey Cole, representing the Trust, have had meetings both with the leader of the working party of the Movement and Access Study and with the consultants who are being retained on Park and Ride. They have been able to make some input on the terms of reference and have been told that the Trust will be given an opportunity to comment on the draft of the consultants' report. Signs are encouraging that the traffic problems of Winchester are at last being tackled.
A consensus is emerging that some kind of Park and Ride Scheme, both for commuters and shoppers, is inevitable, though its form and timing are uncertain. Calls for Park and Ride are also now being made by traders in the town. The difficulty that must be faced, however, is that for Park and Ride to work there have to be complementary measures of restriction on cars in the centre (e.g. parking reductions in the centre, further street closures, bus priorities on selected routes, etc.).