Chairman's Remarks - Trust Annual Report 1995
Following 13 years of operating the Winchester Heritage Centre with the benefit of an annual grant from the City Council equal to the rent - currently £7,000 per annum - the decision of the financially overstretched City Leisure Grants Committee neither to pay the grant this year nor to guarantee its payment in the future, has led to a major reappraisal of how the Heritage Centre should be financed without in any way curtailing the primary work of the Trust.
Having carried out a survey of possible alternative locations for the Heritage Centre, the decision was taken on 1 August 1995 firstly to stay where we are, secondly to seek a Longer Term Support Agreement with the City Council to tide us over financially for the next few years by continuing to pay the rent, and thirdly to raise funds immediately in order to purchase the existing Heritage Centre building from the City Council, together with the former cottage gardens at the back, and to extend the facilities of the Heritage Centre by constructing a housing for Roger Brown's model of the City as it was in 1870.
I am sure members will realise that this is by far the greatest financial step that the Trust has taken since the original decision to set up the Heritage Centre in 1982. That was the time when grants from local government and other associated organisations were comparatively easy to come by, which is not the case today. However, in theory, the Heritage Centre project would seem to fall well within the parameters of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and it is on them that we shall be focusing the greater part of our search for funds, assisted by a demonstration of commitment by making available some funds from the Trust's reserves.
The co-ordinator and the design team for the project are now in place, so we wish them, and the Heritage Centre Management Committee, every success in bringing the project to a successful conclusion.
One of the great surprises that I receive each year is when I get out the previous Annual Report to see where we stood a year ago. My reactions vary from "do you really mean to say that such and such a now well-developed project was only in its infancy a year ago?" to "what can I say that is new about this other project, as progress over the year seems almost negligible?"
Peninsula Barracks in particular provides a strange paradox. On the one hand much seems to have happened during the past year, but on the other hand, it was expected that major work would have started by the early summer 1995. One would have liked the final Beating the Retreat on the parade ground in May being followed up by a flotilla of JCBs, mobile cranes and dumper trucks! Alas, at the time of writing, apart from some clearance and foundation work on the St James's Lane part of the site, everything looks much the same as it did when the army left eight years ago.
I hope I am not treading on anyone's toes when I say that, for reasons rapidly disappearing into the mists of time, but undoubtedly due in part to the way that the City Council kept the project very close to their chests, the Trust's opposition to the alien character of the Brooks Centre arrived on the scene too late to exert much influence on the outcome. It is therefore most important that the Trust gets right in on major projects at the very earliest stage - as indeed we did over Peninsula Barracks. As you will read in the report on Development Control, a current area of major interest is just appearing over the horizon, and that concerns the area bounded by the Post Office sorting office in Lower Brook Street, the Coach Station in the Broadway and the Marks and Spencer's warehouse east of Silver Hill.
When considering what we would like to see in this area, we shall have to take many factors into consideration, but I would mention just four of recent origin. These are the opening of the two new superstores at Winnall, the opening of the large BHS retail store in the Brooks Centre, the expansion of Park and Ride which will eventually lead to the closure of some City centre carparks as more out of town radial carparks are opened, and finally the continuing rapid increase in the student population of Winchester.
Two large student-villages will shortly open at Easton Lane for the School of Art, and at West Downs on the Romsey Road for King Alfred's College, where the number of students has grown in a very few years from under 1000 students to the 4400 enrolled this autumn. Should the day come when the University of Winchester receives its charter, with a rapid and significant rise in our student population, it may well change some of the characteristics of the Winchester that we know today, and its requirements for the future.
Following a decision to experiment with operating without a committee exclusively dealing with landscape matters, you will see that we have no exclusively "landscape" report in this publication. Landscape aspects are now treated on a project basis, as in the case of Peninsular Barracks, West Downs, the Westgate or the Local Plan. Gillian Bauer continues to study planning applications for individual trees, and the landscape implications of the normal applications as dealt within the Development Control panels. The Trust's tree survey for the area within the City walls is now complete; this will provide a most useful reference for both the Trust and the City Council.
Finally, I can report that the Trust has been very active in many fields during the past year, particularly in our Development Control work and in the running of the Heritage Centre. Our finances are being monitored closely, especially in view of the financial constraints that might be temporarily imposed on us during the purchase and reconstruction of the Heritage Centre. For this, and for countless unreported actions effected by the Trust, I am most grateful to those of you who voluntarily give up your time to further our activities, and for the support of our subscribing members.