Chairman's Remarks - Trust Annual Report 1999
Sir Hugh Casson CH KCVO RA MA (Cantab) RIBA FCSD
It is with regret that I have to report the death in August of our Vice President, Sir Hugh Casson. He will be long remembered as a man, an artist and a designer and one who has left his mark in many places, including Winchester.
He hated a number of aspects of modern planning. One, with which our membership may well agree, was what he described as "the deadly mildew of subtopia - the creeping suburbia which is destroying alike the fabric of our towns and the face of our countryside". Would that more people felt the same way.
I have written to his widow on your behalf conveying the sympathy and condolences of all members of the Trust.
The Heritage Centre
This was finally reclaimed from the builders in July and both flats were speedily occupied by tenants. It has been a long and frustrating haul from conception to the finish of the project but the Trust now has an Headquarters of which it can be proud and where our Secretary can work with a degree of comfort in both summer and winter. In addition the building, a survivor of the clearance scheme which swept away most of the area known as the Brooks, has been preserved for posterity. The Trust has a 99 year lease on the site, and a Sinking Fund has been established to provide for its replacement when it expires.
In due course we will open the Heritage Centre as a reading room where people may come and inform themselves on matters both local and national, and where we hope to build on the Chippindale experience to extend conservation learning and debate amongst people of all ages.
Membership
At the time of writing the Membership of the Trust stands at 927, of which 874 are individuals, with a further 53 Corporate and Honorary members. We are always on the look out for new members to help us with our work. If you have friends who are not members of the Trust, do please encourage them to join. The Trust needs all the support it can muster for the battles concerned with Winchester's character that lie ahead. Application forms can be obtained from the Secretary at the Heritage Centre.
Winchester City and its Setting - The Report
This recently published Report confirms that Winchester is a city of exceptional character, which has remarkably survived the upheavals of the twentieth century which have changed many other cities out of all recognition. Few would argue with this, or think it necessary to produce a report to say so. Nor do we need to be reminded that there is now a great danger of losing Winchester's character if we do not master the pressure for expansion and ensure that change is conducted in a sympathetic manner.
The Report was sponsored by a partnership of the Countryside Agency (formerly the Countryside Commission), the County and City Councils, the Hampshire Wildlife Trust, the Hampshire Gardens Trust and the Winchester Preservation Trust. The Countryside Agency was the major funding partner with the Trust contributing £2,500.
Where this Report breaks new ground and gives hope for the future is that it sets out to explain why the City is so special - 'what matters and why'. The sponsors of the Report believe that only when this subtle and extensive information is known and understood is there a chance of retaining Winchester's character into the next millennium. Moreover, they believe that if Winchester can show the way, the Report could be used as a model for others to follow, so the work that has been done here is also of national importance.
It is the partnership's hope that widespread knowledge of the Report will mean that it helps not only the Planners, but everyone who is interested in retaining the character of Winchester and its peerless setting, for we are all responsible for what happens next. Work is now in hand to make a wider public aware of the existence of the Report. The review will also suggest how future studies of a similar nature may be conducted to provide more and improved information. One other cathedral city is so far known to be interested.
The Report is available to the public through the Local Studies section in the City Lending Library. Members may read a copy at the Heritage Centre, or buy one at the price of £20.
Projects
The Trust's own illustrated studies of selected areas of the City of Winchester are in draft and will be published in due course. At the moment there is a problem with the copyright of the Ordnance Survey maps incorporated into the studies. We hope we will be able to resolve this and thus avoid any infringement of copyright. No other projects will be undertaken until such time as a new Chairman of the Group has been found. Sadly Antony Feltham-King, the last Chairman of the Projects Group, found that his workload was such that it prevented him from giving Projects the time and effort it deserved. We are very sad not to have his input and we do thank him most sincerely for all his good work in the past.
Future of Winchester Study
This study was undertaken by Winchester City Council to help guide the planning of the City over the next 30 years. This is a forward looking approach to the development of the City for which the Council are to be commended.
However there was an all pervading sense that the City Council's view was that without expansion the City would die, but no proof of this was offered. This sense was compounded by the manner in which the public consultation questions were framed, and which were almost unanswerable without seeming to support the expansionist policy. Winchester is a small market town and cannot hope to compete with the neighbouring conurbations' mix of retail outlets and facilities. Nor should it try to do so. But it can compete in its ambience for shoppers which is so unlike that to be found in neighbouring shopping centres. Improving this ambience is one way to attract more people to shop in Winchester, and future plans should aim to do this.
The Trust is against any development that will damage the City and its setting, and particularly on its perimeter. Major housing developments around Winchester will be of little benefit for the citizens. The main beneficiaries will be migrants from the neighbouring towns and from even further afield. They will be for the most part commuters, who perceive Winchester as a good place to live, but will work, and probably shop, in other centres served by the County's good communications.
For any development to be acceptable to the Trust we will need to be assured of, and shown the proof, of the need for a particular development, the sustainability of the development in terms of the environment and the infrastructure and, where appropriate, that the development will enhance the built area of the City and be in harmony with its townscape and landscape setting.
The Chairman petitioned the Council on your behalf not to adopt the final report, but in the event it was adopted after minimal discussion. We will need to be on our guard and to monitor carefully any moves to expand or develop the City in the name of this report.
Broadway and Friarsgate development
At the time of writing the City Council's Brief for the development of this key area of the City is about to be published. The Trust has had preliminary discussions on the draft brief with the Planning Department and is to discuss it with the Chief Planning Officer in early September. The Trust is emphatic in its desire to see a development of the highest calibre on this central site. The two major players are Marks & Spencer and Stagecoach, who are both freeholders of substantial parts of the area proposed for development. The Trust has become a shareholder in both these organisations and has written to the Company Secretaries suggesting a meeting with representatives of their property managers. We will continue to monitor closely the progress of this major city centre project to try and ensure that the outcome is the best for Winchester. We do not want another Brooks debacle or something even worse.
Bushfield
The Trust hears that discussions and consultations on the possible development of part of this piece of chalk downland are being conducted. But because of 'confidentiality' problems it is not yet in the public domain. The plan is apparently to develop part of the area as a sports and leisure centre with an hotel and a car park to take forward the Park & Ride scheme. There is a risk that such a scheme would seriously compromise the views across the valley and the incomparable setting of St. Cross. We will give you more details as and when they become available.
The County Structure Plan
The crucial and as yet unresolved issue is the number of houses to be built in the area up to the year 2011. The County had originally proposed 44,000 units, but the panel at the Examination in Public disagreed and proposed 56,000. It is now a possibility that the Government Office for the South East (GOSE) may press for 42,000 units, plus 14,000 in reserve. The County is no longer autonomous in this matter as it has to contend with the views of the two unitary authorities, Southampton and Portsmouth. The current view is that the Joint Panel representing the County and the two cities is unlikely to agree on a figure that is acceptable to them all. If agreement is not reached then the Minister may direct that the County must plan on 56,000 units.
Even if agreement on total numbers is reached, there will still be the thorny problem of distribution to be resolved. Discussions on this might drag on for some time resulting in the whole planning process being restarted to look at plans up to 2016. This would leave the County without any plans in place for 2001, which would be the worst of all scenarios. We must hope that common sense will prevail and a compromise reached which will satisfy all parties. If not, then the future of Hampshire and its countryside looks rather bleak.