A Cry Against the Recationary & Negative - TrustNews Sept 03
I am very pleased that at this time the Trust has been so positive in its justified criticism of the planning system in Winchester. A report such as this is easily used selectively and superficially to support almost any position about Planning leaving the real substance in the shadows so I plead here that it is read carefully and within the framework of the Trust's 'Vision' document and the Government's very brave aim to create an urban renaissance.
There are many positions available for anyone involved in the process of development but I choose to recover the meaning of the word development to be what it should mean, that is 'to change and progress' and in general parlance to improve something.
As an architect, my whole sense of being is derived from a lifetime learning about how and why development can and should make peoples lives and environment better and richer, i.e. to be changed for the better. It is what the Vision document was about - having a vision and managing the process of change for the better.
The rush to defend the barricades, against heathen hordes of Developers sweeping across the City reveals not only the absence of a plan for the City but also the paranoia hiding just below the surface of suburbia, the fear of change. This fear shows a complete lack of faith in any contemporary values [and I mean deep cultural values not just architectural taste], and the dread of anything that smacks of a real urban environment. Even though the urban centre of Winchester is the very essence of the quality of the City the values being defended and the forms of development preferred, even by planners, are suburban. This fundamental contradiction remains unresolved and creates a perfect breeding ground for the very reactionary response to development. The whole situation is a powerful but negative force that only sends us backwards, puts us on the defensive and does nothing to help form what we desperately need, a clear logical process of planning which will guide Winchester, step by step, towards becoming a better City.
The elected members first took only the crude numbers of PPG 3 as the goal by which to achieve housing targets and officers followed. Now the politicians are retreating to save their seats and the officers lower the value of sites to the point where it becomes uneconomic to develop at all within the City, thus triggering the MDA. i.e Barton Farm? Perhaps this is what many in the administration really want to happen. Barton Farm would certainly be easier politically as there would only be one group of protesters and it would be much more economic to organise and build. And where in all this is the will to make a better City, where is the vision? Lost in the detritus of petty fears. And where is an architect like me in all this? Lost in spiralling costs, loss of income, interminable circular unproductive negotiations, threatened by the angry populace, trying not to give up on the almost lost objective of good architecture and struggling to maintain just a thread of hope in the cultural desert. It is no wonder that I am angry at petty remarks made about modern architecture, about architects, even about developers. The City doesn't deserve and won't get good architecture of any style unless it supports it publicly, plans for it and makes the process workable and creative.
Editorial note - This e-mail was received from an exasperated architect member. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Trust but we understand that there are many other equally exasperated planning applicants amongst the professionals who are currently presenting their cases to the City Council.